Brighter Blogging Roundup: Friday 16th August
Looking for some extra blogging inspiration?
Each week, I pick a bunch of my favourite blog posts to share with you. Here’s this week’s:
TOP READ: How to Get WordPress.com Features on Self-Hosted WordPress Blogs, WPBeginner
If you started off using WordPress.com for its simplicity and ease of set up, you might eventually get to the point where you want to switch to self-hosted WordPress (which allows you more control and flexibility, and which is widely seen as the most professional option). There are some handy features that come built-in with WordPress.com that you won’t have with the self-hosted version … and this article explains how you can add them (or something very close) to your new blog.
MONEY: How to Make a Full Time Income from Your Blog, Darren Rowse, ProBlogger
This post runs through, at a fairly high level, how you can make a living from your blog. Darren emphasise the crucial point that most bloggers bring in income through several different means — such as displaying ads, running sponsored posts, earning affiliate commission, and selling their own products or services. It’s a particuarly good read for the breakdown of figures that shows you different potential ways you could bring in enough to add up to a full time living.
EMAIL: Email Marketing 101, Elna Cain, Smart Blogger
This post is a detailed introduction to email marketing — why you need an email list, providers you can use to set one up, guidance on incentives you can create to encourage people to join your list, suggestions about where to position your sign-up forms on your site, and more. If you’re thinking about starting an email list — or if you’ve started one but you only have a handful of subscribers — then this is well worth a read.
HTTPS: Why Your Website Needs HTTPS, QuickSprout
Does your website have the green “secure” padlock symbol next to its URL in your readers’ browsers? If not, you may be losing their trust … and you’ll certainly not be ranking as well in Google as you should. This post explains what HTTPS is and why it’s becoming increasingly important. Even if you don’t sell anything from your site, you’ll want to get it set up to use HTTPS.
PRODUCTIVITY: Why Your Procrastination Might Not Be as Bad as You Think, Kelton Reid, Copyblogger
This meticulously researched, and well argued, post from Copyblogger takes a fresh look at the well-worn topic of procrastination (something that most bloggers are very familiar with!) and explains why it occurs and offers some gentle ways to tackle it. As Kelton puts it, “With a little help and some self-compassion, it’s easier to move into the present and get to work.”
Hope you enjoy these posts as much as I did! Make sure you’re on the newsletter list so you don’t miss out on my future roundups (and my regular posts too).