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.

Want your readers to experience lightening-fast page load speed when they view your blog posts? Facebook has the solution. Facebook has recently opened Instant Articles feature to all publishers. If you don’t have an idea about Instant Articles, I will quickly explain it for you followed by a complete guide to setup Facebook Instant Articles on your WordPress blog.

What are Facebook Instant Articles

As the name suggests, this looks something that loads pages instantly when clicked. And yes, it really does. Instant Articles is a feature by Facebook that drastically improves the page load speed by converting the blog post into an HTML5 optimized document. Facebook instant articles is definitely optimized for speed and performance and gives readers a better user experience. Once you have configured Instant Articles on your blog, readers viewing your Facebook page through smartphone will automatically see the instant article icon. Here is how an instant article looks like:

If you haven’t seen an instant article yet, you can have a look at some recent posts on my Facebook page here.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Ultimate Guide to Setup Facebook Instant Articles on WordPress

Here are the 3 steps to configure instant articles for your WordPress blog:

Step 1: Sign up for instant articles

1. Go to Instant Articles Sign up page. Make sure you are logged into your Facebook account before you start the sign up process. (If you are not logged in yet, you will be prompted to login on the next screen)
2. You will be asked to select the page where you want to configure the Instant Articles tool. 
3. Scroll down and click “Access Instant Articles Tools” button. Click “Continue”.
4. You will be redirected to Instant Articles configuration page. You can also manually navigate to Instant Articles configuration page by going to “Page Settings” and then clicking on “Instant Articles” from the left pane.

In order to setup Instant Articles for your blog, you need to verify the ownership of the site. Here is how you can claim your URL:

1. Scroll down to Claim Your URL section. 
2. Copy the meta tag and add it to your WordPress blog.
3. If you don’t know how to add custom meta tags, you can simply install “Add Meta Tags” plugin.
4. Once you have installed the plugin, click “Metadata” under “Settings”.
5. Paste your Instant Article meta tag in the “Site-wide META tags” text area.
6. Click “Save Changes”.

Now go back to the Instant Articles Configuration page and click “Claim URL” button.

As the success message indicates, the next setup is to update your Production RSS Feed on Instant Articles configuration page. Before you update your Production feed, you need to install the Official Facebook Instant Articles WordPress plugin in order to get your instant articles feed URL. Install the following plugin:

Instant Articles for WP

Once you have installed the plugin, you can update your production RSS feed. Your production feed looks like this (YourDomain/feed/instant-articles). My production feed URL came out to be http://www.gsmhype.com/feed/instant-articles. Click “Save” to update production feed.

Configure Instant Articles Plugin

We are already done half-way and there are only few things left. After you have installed the WordPress plugin, you can see Instant Articles button in the left pane.

• Click the Instant Articles button from the left pane.
• You need to add your App ID and App Secret in order to get started.

You must be wondering what is App ID and App Secret. Don’t worry. I will explain step-by-step how to get App ID and App Secret.

To get an App ID and App Secret, you need to create a Facebook App. Here is how you can create an App in less than 2 minutes:

1. Go to “Facebook for Developers” page.
2. Click “Add a New App” button.
3. Select “Website” from the popup screen.
4. Type name for your App and hit “Create a New Facebook App ID” button.
5. Select a category for your App and provide your email.
6. Click “Create App ID” button.
7. Provide your URL on the next screen and click Next.
8. Now click “Skip to developer dashboard” button.
9. On the developer dashboard, you can find your App ID and App Secret.
10. Before updating these values in Instant Articles plugin, make sure you change your App status to “live”. You can do this by clicking “App Review” from left pane on developer dashboard and then updating its status to public as below.
11. Now go back to the dashboard and copy App ID and App Secret and paste them in the Instant Articles plugin.
12. Click “Next” to activate instant articles plugin.
13. “Login with Facebook” to select the Facebook page where you want to publish instant articles.
14. If you see the error “Submit for Login Review”, just ignore it and click “Okay” button.
15. Select the page from the dropdown where you want to publish instant articles. Click “Next”.

Here comes an end to Step 1. You have already done the tough part. Make sure you update your logo for instant articles before heading to Step 2. Here is how you can update your logo:

1. Go to Instant Articles Configuration page.
2. Scroll down to “Styles” section under tools.
3. Click on default style.
4. In order to get your account approved, it is mandatory to upload a logo.
5. Click the upload logo button. Facebook requires a logo of size 690 * 132 at-least.
6. Click Save. You can leave the rest as it is.

Step 2: Submit Articles for Review

If you go to the Instant Articles configuration page, you can see that the “Submit for Review” button is disabled.

Facebook requires you to have at-least 10 articles in Instant Articles feed in order to submit articles for review. Now one way to do this is to write 10 blog posts, and then come back to this page to submit articles for review but here is a quick fix.

1. Go to WordPress Dashboard. Click “Posts”.
2. Select your 10 posts that you think are best.
3. Open each post in Edit Mode, one by one.
4. Click “Update” button. This will send the updated articles to Instant Article RSS feed.

Once you have updated 10 articles, you can now submit the articles for review. Go back to Instant Articles configuration page and click on “Submit for Review” button. It normally takes 2-3 business days to get approved. I got approval in 2 days.

Step 3: Start Publishing Instant Articles

Once your account is approved, you will see the following message:

You can now start publishing instant articles on your Facebook page. Under the “Start Publishing” section, you can turn on the auto-publishing option.

This will automatically send newly created articles to the instant articles feed. Once you share an article on your Facebook page, your readers will now see it as an instant article.

That’s it. If you had any problem while configuring Facebook instant articles for your WordPress blog, feel free to let me know in the comments section below

The post Setup Facebook Instant Articles on WordPress: Ultimate Guide with Pictures 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.

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.

HostGator offers 1-click installation for Thousands of apps.

This is a step-by-step guide that tells you how to install WordPress on HostGator.

Follow these steps to install WordPress on your site:

1. Login to your HostGator Control Panel.

2. Click “Get started with WordPress today”.

3. Click “Install WordPress” button.

4. Fill out the form below to get started with installation.

5. Done. Your installation is complete. Click on “View Credentials” button on top right to get your login credentials for WordPress Admin.

If you have any problem while installing WordPress, please feel free to contact me.

If you find this guide useful, don’t hesitate to share it with your friends.

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