Regardless of whether you’re a newbie or a veteran blogger, it’s important to create content consistently. But turning the black canvas, the white screen, the blinking cursor, and ideas into content that converts, engages, and attracts can be terrifying at times. Moreover, the process can prove to be time consuming and challenging.

All-in-all content marketing can be tough work. To combat this, I’ve compiled a list of some tried and tested techniques proven to assist any blogger get content ideas for their blog.

1. Reader Survey

Surveys are an excellent way to gather information from your loyal readers. This can be done by sending a survey asking them about what they think makes for an interesting read, or which one would not. To do this all you need is to create the survey using, say, Google Forms and thereafter sending it out via social media, a newsletter, or through your blog.

On the survey form, you may decide to have multiple choice questions covering a predefined set of topics, or you could also make open-ended questions that require your readers input. The number of responses obviously depends on the size of your readership.

Established bloggers may have an upper hand thanks to their huge readership base. But even if you’re just starting out as a blogger and are lucky enough to get a couple of responses, that would be enough to generate some content ideas for your next post.

2. Facebook Groups

Over the last couple of years, Facebook groups have experienced an exponential growth in popularity. Which becomes resourceful for bloggers looking to learn, connect and grow their blog.

Besides, Facebook groups are a rich source of information for bloggers looking to find fresh writing ideas. More and more people are turning to Facebook to get solutions to their problems in areas like pet care, graphic design, gardening etc.

Irrespective of which niche your blog belongs to, you’re sure to find the perfect Facebook group that you can join to find fresh blogging ideas.

Once you have found the Facebook group, just scour through the questions people are seeking answers for and jot them down for content ideas.

3. Google Keyword Planner

The power Google’s Keyword Planner has for bloggers looking for fresh content for their blogs cannot be understated. It is completely free for anyone and the only thing required before using it is signing up.

The tool works by doing detailed research on the keywords being searched for. Furthermore, it has important search parameters that you can tweak to your advantage to get the most relevant results.

The results from the search can generate dozens of amazing content ideas. In addition, the tool also gives an overview of the number of searches conducted per month from people searching the keywords on Google.

4. The Web

The web is a brainstorming technique almost every person has used before, especially in their schooling years when they needed to connect different topics together or come up with essay ideas. The concept is a no brainer. Search for a couple of ideas, then branch out further to related sub-ideas.

For example, you might begin by searching for topics like “content marketing” and then you could branch out to “calls-to-action,” “voice and tone,”, and “SEO.” Moreover, you could continue digging deeper to get even more ideas. From “calls-to-action” you might get topics like “mid-post conversion,” “free offer,” or “pop-up.”

5. Re-purpose Previous Content

Refreshing old content can be a good way to spare yourself the difficulty associated with coming up with new content from scratch. Several ways can be used to create new content from what was written before.

To begin with, look at the posts that have received the most social media shares, comments, and views by using Google Analytics.

If that post was something like “tips to make your home more energy efficient in 2017,” you could consider writing an updated version for 2018.

Secondly, you could also write a sequel. For example, if you wrote about off-site SEO, you could extend the coverage to on-site SEO. Again, you could add a new perspective if you wrote an article that was only targeting one audience.

6. Competition

No matter which niche your blog belongs to, one thing almost-always remains constant – competition. If you find yourself hitting dead ends in terms of ideas, you could take a look at what your competition is doing. Even before you begin blogging, it is always a good idea to keep a list of competitors in the back of your mind.

Check their social accounts and their blogs to see what they have been up to. You can begin by examining what kind of content has been popular and checking whether you’ve covered that topic before or not. If not, then that could be an idea for you to pick up and provide an in-depth coverage. Remember, the idea isn’t to copy paste, but rather to take inspiration to come up with content that has even more depth.

7. Newsletter

Having a newsletter for your blog is invaluable. It provides a channel through which you can keep in touch with your audience in real time. Besides, it provides a good opportunity to learn from them.

Setting up a newsletter is simple. Integrate the sign up form in your blog with a list-building software. Examples of tools available for marketers to build their email lists include MailChimp, AWeber, Rafflecopter, and OptinMonster.

Once you have your newsletter set up, you can include a question in your newsletter asking your audience what they would like to learn next or what area they are struggling with. While many people may not reply, those that do reply will provide you with an immense resource of ideas for your next blog topic.

8. Blog Comments

Blog comments can be a treasure trove of ideas for bloggers looking for fresh ideas. Even while some bloggers try as much as possible to cover a certain topic the best way they can, they may sometimes leave readers with more questions than before. So if you do find yourself bombarded with a good chunk of questions from a certain blog post, it could be a clear sign that you need to further elaborate on the topic.

Producing consistent, high-quality content is crucial if you’re looking to have a successful online presence. Using these strategies you should be able to come up with content ideas to keep your blog regularly updated. If you can think of other ideas I’ve missed or have any questions leave a comment below!

The post How to Come Up with Awesome Content Ideas for Your Blog appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

Believe or not there are thousand of WordPress Themes out there, and choosing the best WordPress theme for your website can be more upsetting than you think.

You must consider this step as the most important one while building your website because how the site looks matters a lot and you will hang out with the theme for quite long time.

Which WordPress Theme is Best for me?

I have been dealing with WordPress for about 5 years so I decided to create this guide to help you to choose the Best WordPress Theme.

No regrets!!!

Now let’s simplify each of these questions.

Reading these steps matters a lot because how the heck you can answer things you don’t know about?

Free themes versus Paid One’s

I hope you didn’t forget so quickly the fifth question (How my site will look after 3-6 months?).

We can’t deny the fact that there are many and many free themes that are just amazing and updated regularly like Twenty Sixteen.

Free themes can be a push up for newbies that are broke with money in the beginning,  but let’s talk the truth with Twenty Sixteen WordPress theme you can’t build the big brand blog you are imaging of.

SEO Capability 

Picking up an SEO Optimized theme is absolutely a must and you should take care of it. The fancy themes that you see in demos sometimes generate poorly coded scripts in JavaScript and Html5 that can affect your website’s visibility on the search engines. Checking all the pages for these kind of scripts it is very difficult so that’s why you must check the theme description if the pages are optimized.

I’ve noticed WordPress themes at MyThemeShop are highly SEO optimized. A theme that is well-optimized for SEO has more potential to bring in organic traffic from search engines which is why I always prefer buying my themes from MyThemeShop. Moreover, I just love their extra-ordinary customer support. Whenever I am stuck with a problem, their support representatives are there to help you out.

Browse SEO-Friendly WordPress Themes

Reviews and Support

Support must be considered as an important indicator before purchasing a WordPress theme because however pro you are in WordPress you will still need a little help from them, of course this doesn’t go for beginners where they look for them just a baby for his mom.

Theme Options

Almost all the WordPress themes give the credibility to change a few basics from the admin dashboard like logo, header banners, sidebar, footer…

If you have coding skills, I’m sure that you will try to tweak with the template or even creating a Child Theme but if you don’t then make sure that the theme gives the ability to change what you want (ask support for this).

It should be better if the theme also includes a Page Builder plugin that allows you to create layouts and pages with the drag and drop skills.

Responsiveness is a MUST

A case study by Smartinsights shows that mobile users grow 58% year over year.

This means that the most of your audience will check your website by smartphones and tablets?

How will you delight them?

With a fancy responsive website that they can’t stop scrolling or with an outdated unresponsive website?

There are even rumors that having a mobile-friendly website is a ranking signal.

Who knows?

Last Words

At all finding the best WordPress theme it doesn’t involve more then picking up the snappiest

Never forget to be UNIQUE.  

Add something.

This is it all from my guide, I hope this will help you selecting the best WordPress theme for blog.

It will be great to know if you would comment below the theme you chose for your blog and why.

Looking forward to hear from you.

The post 5 Tips to Choose the Best WordPress Theme for Your Blog appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

We all write posts for our blogs and publish them at regular intervals. Some may publish few times a week while others might publish only few times a month. But do you have a checklist which you follow every time after you publish a post?

What to Do After I Hit the Publish Button?

Confused? I mean do you have a checklist which contains all the things you should do after publishing a new blog post. Well if you don’t have one, you are at a significant loss. You cannot follow the “pray and preach approach”. In order to get some eye balls on your blog posts, you need to promote it well.

Don’t worry we are at your rescue. Follow this checklist to be at the top when it comes to promoting your post. Do try to follow this list each time you publish a new blog post.

1. Pin It

Most people neglect Pinterest as a useful social platform. Well, you are missing on a huge social traffic if you’re doing so. Your blog doesn’t need to be a food blog or fashion blog to share images on Pinterest. It works well for every niche if strategically used.

First, pin the image onto your board. After few days start pinning your image onto different other relevant boards. Make sure your images contain a description and an alt tag.

2. Share Your Posts on Facebook and Twitter

Facebook and Twitter are the biggest social platforms you can use to promote your blog posts. Try to share your blog posts on both of these platforms.

Share your posts using your personal profile and also the blog’s profile. Try not only to share the URL but explain why they should read your post. This way people are more attracted to your posts and will be keen in reading them too.

Twitter is another great place to share your blog posts. You can easily tag someone to let them know you have mentioned them. With Twitter, I like to share my posts with at least 2-3 relevant hashtags and a suitable image. Hashtags are very crucial when it comes to Twitter. It can provide you with the extra boost to your tweets.

In my opinion, you should follow the 80-20 rules which means spend 20% of your time creating content and 80% of time promoting that content.

3. Respond to Comments

Responding to Comments is very critical to any blog. It doesn’t matter whether you have a baby blog or a giant one. Its readers who are helping you to grow, so make sure you value them. It helps you build a strong relation with your readers. And also develops a sense of ownership in readers.

Try to comment on the first ten-twenty comments if not all. Believe you me, this tactic is definitely going to help you grow at an unimaginable pace.

4. Email Your Readers

If you are not capturing emails in 2016, you are a goner. Time has drastically changed in the past few years. Time had gone when people used to subscribe blogs using RSS feeds. You don’t even see them on blogs now.

Email marketing is very important if you want to stay in the game. Try to mail your readers the blog post with a suitable introduction to the post. Make sure you don’t tell them the key elements of the post in the mail itself. Make sure your excerpts are engaging and arise the interest of your readers. This way, out of curiosity, the recipient will have to open your post and read it.

5. Keep an Eye on the Stats

Monitor your statistics as to how well your new blog post has performed. Google Analytics is the recommended tool for analyzing your readers and posts. It will help you know if you have hit the bulls-eye or not.

Try to check the on-page time as well. If it is too low, then your post may be lacking information that your reader was expecting to get fro your blog post.

6. Make it Resourceful

Instead of writing posts by breaking big topics or guides, try writing one big resourceful page. This way Google will value the posts more which will ultimately result in higher ranking. Try to update your post every few weeks to help maintain the search engine rankings.

You can update by adding extra points that come to your mind or by adding new strategies and methods. Craft your blog posts in a way that they remain the ultimate source of information for your readers and they don’t have to check for other blogs for same information.

7. Share on Forums

Forums are a great place to share your good stuff with the readers. Try not to spam your posts as it won’t be of any use. Link out to your posts when it is very relevant to the discussion, otherwise refrain from linking.

Many forums have thousands of active members. You just need the right strategy to drive the tons of targeted traffic to your blog.

8. Link Round-Ups

If you feel your post is epic and resourceful, you can try for link roundups. Many prominent blogs including ProBlogger have weekly round-ups where they feature the best articles published in the past week.

You just need a good article and a professional mail to make sure your blog post makes it to the roundup list next time. It will not only help you get a backlink but will also drive lots of targeted traffic to your blog.

9. Monitor Rankings

We all post in the hope that some day our post will rank on the first page of Google. Make sure you track your position for different keywords from the first day. This helps you better understand the progress of your rankings.

If your rankings are stuck at some place, it’s time to improve off-page SEO and update your content. You should even monitor your competitors so  that you can replicate some of their strategies to beat them in rankings.

10. Schedule your Social Profiles

If you have some bucks to invest, then do it in a tool which provides you social automation. It will make your life simpler and help you chill out. It is a  great method to improve your social engagement and traffic. These tools enable you to schedule your posts not only on your blog but also schedule social media posts.

If you think you suck at social media marketing, you can use some of the best social media management tools available in the market.

You need to understand the importance of content marketing in order to get the word out to the readers as well as influencers. Following this checklist ensures that you are heading in the right direction. If you would like to share any useful tip that worked for you, feel free to share with me and I would love to feature your voice in this list.

Make sure you share the post if you feel it is worth sharing. I strongly believe that this checklist helps you get more traffic and soar you higher in rankings.

The post 10 Things to Do After Publishing a Blog Post appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

Did you, like most of new bloggers, started your blog with WordPress.com considering it the easiest option? Yes, it definitely is the best choice for newbies as it is extremely beginner friendly but when it comes to flexibility and scalability, you can no longer use WordPress.com. Over the time when you realize the need to customize your blog by installing different plugins and tweaking your theme, you feel crippled and this is the right time to switch to a self-hosted blog on WordPress.org. Here are few symptoms that confirm it’s time to transfer WordPress.com site to WordPress.org:

Things You Need to Transfer WordPress.com Site to WordPress.org

WordPress.org is a self-hosted blogging platform. As the name suggests, you need to have a web hosting before you can initiate the transfer process. I highly recommend that you use SiteGround Web Hosting to host your WordPress blog.

Alternative Web Hosting Providers

Here are some alternative web hosting services you may look into if you don’t plan to go with SiteGround:

Scenario 1: Moving a Free WordPress.com Blog

This scenario applies if you have been blogging with Free WordPress.com domain. e.g. yourname.wordpress.com.

In this case, you need the following two things to get started:

1. Domain Name
2. Hosting

If you used SiteGround, you don’t need to worry about site transfer as it is being done by their support team at no extra cost.

However, if you are using a different hosting service and you want to do website transfer by yourself, follow the rest of this guide to transfer your WordPress.com Site to self-hosted WordPress.

Scenario 2: Moving a Branded WordPress.com Blog (A Branded Domain Name)

If you already have a branded domain name e.g. yourname.com, all you need to get started is a hosting service. Once you have purchased a hosting plan, you will need to update your Nameservers information to point your domain to the new host.

Updating the Nameservers should be the final step of migration process in order to avoid any downtime.

Step-by-Step Guide to Migrate from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

#1. Export Data from WordPress.com

1. Login to WordPress.com.
2. Click “My Sites” in the top left corner.
3. Select your desired site (If you have more than one).
4. Scroll down in the left pane. Click “WP Admin”.
5. In the left pane, go to “Tools>>Export”.
6. Select the Free Export option which will generate an XML file of your site content.
7. Click “Start Export”.
8. Select “All Content”. Click “Download Export File”.

#2. Installing WordPress on New Hosting

Once you have downloaded the XML export file of your data, next step is to install WordPress on your new host. This is a very easy and simple process that takes less than a minute. If you plan to go with SiteGround, you are already enjoying free site migration services.

If you opted for a different host, you will have to Install WordPress by yourself. Here is how you can install WordPress in less than a minute:

• Install WordPress on BlueHost
• Install WordPress on HostGator
• Install WordPress on A Small Orange

Permalink Settings

This is an important step that needs to be done very carefully.

If you want to use same permalink structure as you had on your old blog, you can update it by going to Setting>>Permalinks.

However, if you want to select a  new permalink structure, make sure you add proper redirects as described in Step 5.

Once you have installed WordPress, next step is to import your old content into your new self-hosted WordPress installation.

#3. Import Content in Self-Hosted WordPress

1. Login to WP Admin using the credentials provided at the time of installing WordPress.
2. Go to “Tools/Import” from the left menu.
3. The next screen displays a variety of options to import content files. Select “WordPress”.
4. You will be asked to install WordPress importer plugin if this is your first time importing content. Insall the plugin and proceed.
5. Now Browse the XML file you exported earlier and click “Update file and import”.
6. If your file size is larger than the specified size limit, WXR file splitter to split your import file.
7. You will be asked to select an existing user as author of your posts or asign a new user.
8. On the next screen, confirm if you want all attachments downloaded to your new host. All image links inside your posts will be downloaded to your new website.

#4. Make Your WordPress.com Blog Private

If you don’t want your old readers redirected to your new blog, make sure you mark your old blog as private. However, this is not recommended as you don’t want to lose readership you have built over time.

• To mark your blog as private, go to Setting>>Reading.
• Under Site Visibility, select the option “I would like my site to be private”. Save Changes.

#5. Redirect Blog Traffic and Retain SEO

In order to avoid any downfall in search engine rankings, it is very important that you redirect old links carefully. Having broken links in your site will negatively impact the SEO of your blog and hence, will result in decrease of blog traffic.

If you are moving a free WordPress blog to self-hosted WordPress blog i.e. Scenario#1, you can simply use the WordPress Site Redirection option to redirect your traffic to new blog. It costs $13 per year and is totally worth your money.

1. To enable site redirect, Click here.
2. Select a site for which you want to add Site Redirect.
3. Enter your domain and complete the purchase.

All of your old blog visitors will now be automatically redirected to your new blog.

If you already had a custom domain and now moving to self-hosted WordPress, you don’t need to specify redirects until and unless you stick to same permalink structure.

If you are using a new permalink structure, make sure you redirect your previous posts to new permalink format using Simple 301 Redirects plugin.

This is all to site migration process. If you had any problem during the transfer process or you feel like not doing it by yourself, you are welcome to contact me for Free site migration services.

If you have any query, feel free to ask in the comments section below.

The post How to Transfer WordPress.com Site to WordPress.org (Self-hosted) appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

WordPress is bundled with a lot of amazing features. One of the cool feature WordPress offers is to schedule your posts to be published on a later date and time. This feature has great benefits and most of the beginners are not aware of this feature. This is a step-by-step guide explaining how to schedule posts in WordPress.

Before we start the “how” part, let’s first find out why is there a need to schedule posts.

Why Schedule Your Posts in WordPress?

So the question arises, why is there a need to schedule my blog posts?

Well, there could be a lot of reasons when scheduling your posts comes in handy.

For example, you are going for a vacation and want to enjoy every moment to fullest. But then you are like “Oh, I had to publish a blog post today, let’s do it now”

But your partners on trip will definitely get annoyed with this action of yours. You don’t want to regret the moment you planned for this trip, so its better you schedule your posts before you pack your bags.

Another main reason for scheduling your blog posts is to get maximum attention from readers. You just completed a great blog post, put lots of elbow grease in content research, fixed grammatical errors, optimized it very well for search engines, hit the publish button but got no eyeballs.

“Damn! I feel so frustrated.” You must be feeling something like…

Source: Kay Klim

 

But this was your mistake. You didn’t care about your readers. You didn’t know if they were sleep or at work when you hit the publish button.

Remember! Every thing has a peak time and there is one for publishing your posts too. A research shows that blogs get more views and engagement during the “AM” hours as compared to “PM” hours.

According to this study, Monday is the best day for publishing blog posts and ideal time for publishing posts is 11 am EST.

If you like big numbers in page views and user engagement, you have to find out high activity hours for your blog. You need to learn when are you readers more active and what is the best time they prefer reading blogs.

Scheduling your posts also helps you manage your time efficiently. Here is how you can schedule posts in WordPress:

How to Schedule Posts in WordPress

You can watch this video if you don’t feel like reading the text.

1. Once you are ready to publish your post, don’t publish it

2. We are going to schedule your post now. Move your eyes to the right side of your screen.

3. Look at the blue publish button. Don’t click.

4. There is a button that says “Edit”, right above the “Publish” button. Hit the Edit button.

   

5. You can now set the date and time when the post should go live. Hit Schedule button once you are done.

   

Happy as Larry? You just scheduled your first post.

Now you might be thinking:

Don’t worry. You can do that easily. Once you have identified the time zone where most of your traffic comes from, just follow this:

On WordPress Admin Dashboard, go to Settings>General.

Scroll down and select appropriate time zone. Save Changes when done.

Jump for joy. You did a great job there.

Now you already know how to schedule posts in WordPress, what next?

Share the post with fellow bloggers so they can benefit as well.

The post How to Schedule Posts in WordPress? appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

So you have just created a blog or website and now wondering how to submit my website to google? Well you are thinking great as it is very important to submit your new website or blog to google in order to appear in search results. Though google and other search engines automatically index new websites, I would still suggest you submit website to search engines, primarily google, as soon as you finish creating your new website. This is a simple and easy process I have explained in this guide for you.

Google ranks top among all the search engines over the internet. Search engines retrieve a collection of relevant results based upon user’s query. These results are retrieved on the basis of different factors some of which include domain authority, page rank, backlinks, etc. If you have created a website for your business and you are not concerned with search engine optimization, you can simply submit your website here and you are done.

Submit Website to Google

However, if you have created a website or blog and want to keep an eye on insights like search analytics, search traffic, etc., you must sign up for google webmaster tools. This will allow you to submit your pages manually, understand how your site is performing for various keywords, and submit sitemap to google.

Step-by-Step Guide on How to Submit My Website to Google

In order to gain access to Google Search Console, follow these steps:

1. You first need to have a google email account. If you don’t have one already, create one right now.

2. Go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools and login with your google account.

3. Click on “Add a Property” button.

4. Add the website address of your website or a blog. Click “Confirm”.

5. You will have to verify the ownership of property. Google shows you a recommended method to verify.

6. You can also select another method from a list of Alternate methods available. Google Analytics is the easiest way to verify site ownership.

If you don’t know how to verify your website using the file upload method, HTML tag option is the best for you. Here is how you verify using HTML tag option:

1. Select HTML tag option and copy your meta tag.
2. Install and activate this plugin named “Add Meta Tags”. The publisher of the plugin is George Notaras.
3. Go to Settings > Metadata.
4. Now look for the field named “Site-wide META tags“.
5. Paste your meta-tag here that you copied in the first step. Scroll down to end and click Save Changes.
6. Go back to Google Webmaster Tools and click “Verify“. You are done

7. Once you have verified the site ownership, you will see the property on your webmaster tools dashboard.

You have successfully submitted your new website. You will now be able to see search analytics data for your website on your dashboard.

Most of you will not considering submitting their website on other search engines like Bing. There is no doubt that other search engines have far less users as compared to google but you can’t ignore the fact that those search engines are still getting a million search queries every year.

Submit site to Bing

You can submit site to Bing just like you submitted on Google. To signup for Bing webmaster tools, you must have a hotmail email address. If you don’t have one already, you should first get it here. Once you have a hotmail email, go to http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster and submit your URL. Once you submit your web address, Bing will ask you to verify ownership of the website just like Google. Once you have verified that website belongs to you, you will get access to Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard.

If you had any trouble submitting your site on google, do let me know in the comments section below.

Have you got answer to the question how to submit my website to google? If yes, it’s time for you to move on.

What next?

• Submit sitemap to google
• How to manually submit pages and posts to google?

The post How to Submit My Website to Google and Bing appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

With the advent of Content Management Systems like WordPress, the life of web developers has become very easy. Creating a website or a blog is no more a big deal. Even a person with no technical knowledge can now create a website or a blog using WordPress and other similar content management systems. WordPress comes with a lot of features and there are more than 27,000 plugins available for WordPress which can be used to add various features to the website. To add contact form in WordPress, there are many free plugins available. One of the most famous plugin used for adding contact form in WordPress is Contact Form 7.

Contact Form 7 plugin to add contact form in WordPress

With more than 1 Million active installs, Contact Form 7 is the best free plugin available to add contact form in WordPress blog or website. It offers a lot of customization features which can cater to needs of almost any  business’ website or blog. There are number of different fields you can add using the contact form builder and customize validation messages as well. Using this plugin, you can add as many contact forms on your website as you want. The contact forms created with this plugin also support CAPTCHA which keeps spammers away.

Follow these simple steps to add a contact form to a page on your WordPress blog or website:

1. Login to your WordPress account and go to the Admin Dashboard. 

2. Select “Plugins” from the navigation on left side. Click “Add New”.

   

3. Type “contact form 7” in the search box and hit Enter. Click “Install Now” button.

   

4. Plugin will start installing. Once done, you will be required to activate the plugin. Click “Activate Plugin”.

5. The plugin is installed. You can see a button named “Contact” on the left navigation. Click on it.

   

6. A contact form is created by default. There is a Shortcode which you will be using to include this contact form in your page or blog post. It’s simple as that.

7. To edit a contact form, click “Edit” under the form title.

8. You can customize the form labels and form controls from the “Form” tab. You can also add new fields to your form like phone, attachments, captcha, etc.

   

9. To configure mail settings, click on “Mail” tab. Here you can configure the email where you want to receive responses from this contact form. You can also configure the email template here.

   

10. Lastly, you can also customize the messages and alerts user will see in different scenarios. e.g. error messages, form submission success message, etc. Click on “Messages” tab to configure these settings.

    

11. To use contact form in your website page or blog post, just copy the “Short Code” and paste it where required.

And that’s it. How was your experience with adding a contact form in your blog or website. If you encountered any problem during the setup process, do let me know in the comments and I will be happy to assist. If you are using any other awesome contact form plugin, please share with us in the comments.

The post How to add contact form in WordPress step-by-step guide appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

I have created this step-by-step, foolproof guide to help beginners start a professional blog without wasting their time on learning HTML and going through lengthy tutorials.

Once you have set up your blog, I will show you how you can bring traffic to your blog and make money out of it.

Excited??? Let’s start.

Step 1: Choose a Blogging Niche

So you have already decided to start a professional blog, this is the time you decide about the kind of content your blog is going to have. If you are really passionate about blogging and want to make the best out of it, you should select your niche wisely.

Already found a blog niche?

You are one step ahead. Jump to next step and read about blogging platform you are going to use.

When people are browsing internet, they are always expecting something interesting and useful which would provide them with the required information. If your blog does not contain what people need, it is sooner or later going to be a waste.

This is why targeted blogs are popular among readers. Put yourself in reader’s shoes. Selecting a niche for blog will help you narrow down your target audience. It will also keep your blog active, interactive and engaged.

Now the question arises, how do I choose my blog niche. Here are few tips you should consider while choosing your blog niche:

Choose something you Love

This is the most important thing to consider while you are choosing your blog niche. It is a good practice to do research and see what is the demand of market but most importantly, you should also know what your heart says. If you are doing something that you are not passionate about, it’s quite possible that you will loose interest very soon. There is a famous quote about it:

Having said that, think of something that you love and are passionate about.

If your blog niche is about what you love:

Almost 90% of bloggers fail within a week after starting their blog when they realize that this is not the thing they are passionate about.

Finding your passion

There are many ways you can find out your passion. Some of the following questions may help you in making a final decision:

Apart from these questions, you can also think about the need of market. You have to match your passion with the market demand.

To find out market demand, you can browse internet and find out:

Step 2: Select a Blogging Platform

Before you start thinking so much about the look and feel of you blog, you must first select a blogging platform. There are many blogging platforms currently available in the market. WordPress and Blogger are two of the major blogging platforms. Long story cut short, WordPress is the boss and the following picture shows it all:

Sources show that 74.6 Million sites are built on WordPress which is a huge figure. Even the site you are visiting is powered by WordPress.

Why WordPress is Better than Other Blogging Platforms?

It’s FREE for everyone

Extremely Beginner-Friendly

It’s Secure

Highly Customizable

Mobile-Ready

Huge Support Community

And much much more…

There is no other blogging platform that offers you as much freedom as WordPress does. I would strongly recommend WordPress for beginners as no other blogging platform can beat the features and flexibility offered by WordPress.

Step 3: Find a Domain Name and Web Hosting for your Blog

To get your new blog online, you will need the following two things:

A domain name and hosting will cost you $3 – $5 a month. It is less than a burger at McDonald’s so it won’t break the bank. But it’s something that matters a lot to your blog’s reputation. And it’s super affordable too.

Why get your own Hosting when there are Free alternatives?

Things that come free are always quite attractive. For example, you can start a free blog on WordPress with a domain name like blogname.wordpress.com but here are the downsides:

1. You will not have your own domain name

Which domain name looks professional?

a) blogname.com

b) blogname.wordpress.com

Off-course, the first one looks more professional and genuine.

2. You will not have an email address with your domain when you are using a free hosted blog

When you have your own domain and hosting, you can easily create as many email addresses as you want. Having an email like yourname@yoursitename.com looks more professional as compared to a Gmail or Yahoo email address.

3. Your blog doesn’t belong to you

You have no control on your free blog. It’s not your property and can get removed any fine morning you wake up in your bed. On the other hand, a blog that is on your own domain and hosting is your property and only you are the one who controls it.

Before you go ahead and register your domain name, you must read this about selecting a good domain name.

How do I select a good domain name

You should keep these things in mind while picking up a domain name for your blog:

Easy to Remember

Catchy

Descriptive

But…

Can I use my name for domain name?

YES you can, like I did. It is a great way to start your blog with your own name and you can include the content you like.

Some DONT’S while picking a domain name:

My Advice- Always go for extension like .com , .org or .net. The most commonly used extension is .com.

Where can I get domain name and hosting for my blog

Well there are a lot of companies offering domain registration and web hosting services but there are these factors to consider before selecting a hosting for your blog:

Therefore, I would highly recommend BlueHost for registering your domain and hosting your blog.

Why BlueHost

Visitors on this blog will get a FREE Domain Name, so this is a chance for you to save more money by signing up with BlueHost.

Alternative Hosting Plans

Now here begins the exciting part.

1. Go to www.BlueHost.com and click “Get Started Now”. If you use this link, you are entitled to a FREE Domain which will save you another $12.

2. Select the “basic” plan from the next screen. It gives you 5 email accounts and 50 GB storage which is more than enough for you to keep going for next 5-6 years.

3. Type the domain name you want to register. If you already have a domain name, you can type your domain name on the right side. Click “Next”.

4. Complete your “account information” on the next screen.

5. Select your hosting package.

You can either signup for 12 months, 24 months or 36 months plan depending on your budget. If you pay for 3 years, you will get a lower rate as compared to the other packages. I would suggest you to go for 12 months plan if you are a beginner, and you can always upgrade easily.

You will see some extras as well:

Domain Privacy Protection: It protects your information from WHOIS- a publicly accessible database  which contains your registration information against your domain name. You can check this option if you want to stay anonymous.

You can un-check all other boxes as you don’t need them at this moment. Now your total domain costs fall around $60 for an year which is not bad at all.

6. Scroll down to Payment section. Complete payment details to checkout.

You can either pay with credit card or PayPal. If you want to pay with PayPal, click the “More Payment Options” link.

7. You will shortly receive an email from BlueHost. Login to your hosting account with your credentials.

8. Go to control panel. Find “Install WordPress” icon under “Websites” section.

9. Click “Install”.

10. Select the domain name where you want to install WordPress. Leave the “path” blank if you want to install WordPress in root directory.

11. If you see the error “It looks like files already exist in location”, just hit “Continue” to complete installation.

12. Done. You have just installed WordPress on your brand new domain. It will give you credentials that you will use to login to WordPress.

Step 4: Configure and Design your WordPress Blog

This is the final step and most exciting step of this guide. Your blog is setup and may browse your blog and see how it looks. A default theme is automatically applied when you install WordPress. Here is what you will learn in this final step:

Once you have successfully installed WordPress on your domain, you can login to WordPress using the login credentials provided at the end of installation. You will see the following Dashboard once you are logged in for the first time:

Ignore any extra items in the above screenshot you are not seeing on your “Dashboard“.

Getting Familiar With Some Basic (but important) Stuff

How can I change theme of my WordPress Blog?

You can modify the appearance of your blog by navigating to “Appearance” section.

1. Click on Appearance.

2. Select a new theme you want to apply on your blog. You can also preview a theme before applying it by clicking on “Live Preview” button.

3. To customize a theme, click “Customize“.

4. You will see different customization options for different themes. You can change the “Site Title” and “Tagline” here. You can also select a static landing page for you blog.

How can I add a new Page?

You can add/remove a page from your blog by following these instructions:

1. Select “Pages” from the left navigation panel. Click on “Add New” button.

2. Enter Page Title and content of the page. Select a page template from right. Click “Publish” to make it live for public. You can also save page as draft if you want to publish later. To save only, Click “Save Draft” button.

Writing your First Blog Post

Publishing a new post on your blog is easy. Here is how you can publish your first blog post:

1. Select “Posts” from left”. Click “Add New”.

2. Write title and content of your blog post.

To add a Hyperlink:

1. Select the text you want to link. click “Insert/Edit link” button from the toolbar.

2. You can either link to your own blog posts or to another website on the internet. Check mark the option “Open link in a new window” if you want the link to open in a separate tab.

To add images to post:

1. Click “Add Media” button.

2. Select the images from Library. You can also upload new images and insert image from URL as well.

To format text of blog post:

1. You can use these simple formatting tools to style your blog posts.

How do I Add/Remove links from the navigation bar?

You can easily manage menu items by following these steps:

1. Mouse over “Appearance” on the left panel and Click “Menu”.

2. To create a new menu, Click on “create a new menu” link on top. To add a link to an existing menu, select the type of link you want to add and then click “Add to menu” button. You can create a menu button for posts, pages, categories and even custom links.

Optimizing your blog URL’s for Search Engines

Search engines really like URL’s that are meaningful. Having random numbers in the URL of your blog post or page looks ugly and not so professional. You can configure permalinks of your blog by following these steps:

1. Mouse over to “Settings” and click on “Permalinks”.

2. Select a URL format for your pages and blog posts. I would prefer the 5th one i.e. post title appended at the end of your domain.

Managing Users on your WordPress Blog

You can add/edit/delete users on your blog. You can also change your own password and user information in the “Users” Section.

1. To add a new user, click on the “Add New” button.

2. Enter User details and Select a Role for the new User.

3. There are 5 types of roles you can assign to a user:

Installing Plugins

You can install different plugins to add different features to your blog to make it look more professional. Plugins will really make your life easy.

To find and install a plugin, follow these steps:

1. Select “Plugins” from left sidebar and click “Add New”.

2. Find the plugin you want to install. For example, you need a plugin to create contact form. Type search string in the search box and hit enter. You shall see something like this.

3. Click “Install Now” on the plugin you want to install. Once installed, you will be asked to activate the plugin. Click “Activate Plugin” to start using it.

What Next?

Now that you have successfully created your WordPress blog, it’s time to move on. You just took the first step to your blogging journey.

Meanwhile if you need help with anything, feel free to drop me a line and I will get back to you as soon as possible. I love talking to people and responding their queries.

Sharing is Caring

Last but not the least, if you find this guide useful, don’t forget to share it with your friends and colleagues so that maximum people could benefit from it.

The post How to Start a Blog on WordPress appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.