Like most new bloggers, I didn’t really know what I was doing when I started. I was more concerned with a pretty design and creative language than how my site functioned and how people could find my content.
Over time, I have invested time and money into various tools, classes, and other blogger resources…some that were effective, and others that were not so much.
Fast forward to now, in my fourth year of blogging, I finally have a few resources to share: tools that have truly worked to help lay the foundation for my website and steadily grow traffic to my content.
So here they are!
*Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Hosting
Choosing a host can be daunting. And while I chose Bluehost after reading somewhat consistently that they were great for beginning bloggers using WordPress (and they happen to rank high each year for overall web hosting services), I didn’t really know why they were great, until I needed them…
So once I had my hosting set up, I started to design my site using various online videos and tinkering around. Very quickly, my list of questions grew long. Not knowing where to turn with my very limited budget, I called Bluehost. After helping me with the more technical issues, the agent told me about the option of using WP Live (formerly Blue Sky) to help with my design questions.
With a Bluehost account, you have access to WP Live, a priceless service for any new/inexperienced site owner that shows you how to build and edit your website. This is SO crucial to autonomously managing your site down the road: by showing you how to build various aspects of your site, you are able to learn and retain designs tips that make managing updates on your own down the road much more achievable!
They offer three tiers of service, including the top tier that allows you call and talk to a live web designer (unlimited 15 minute calls). You can sign up by the month and cancel anytime, which is clutch if you are on a tight budget. In just two months, I as able to design my entire website for a little over $200! And then I cancelled the service.
Now from time to time, I have new questions. And so those are the times that I pay for a lower tier service (live chat) for one month to make updates and learn how make other changes to my site that I can’t seem to figure out on my own.
But beyond design, Bluehost has pretty solid customer service with 24/7 support (phone from 7 am until midnight and round-the-clock live chat), and I have found that they can always help with technical questions or problems at any hour of the day.
Click on this link more information about Bluehost or to get started.
SEO Courses that will change the trajectory of your blog
When I first started blogging, I was treating it more like a hobby than a business. It took me 18 months to take the plunge into learning SEO, and I SO WISH I HAD STARTED SOONER!
The following two courses helped me immensely in different ways, and I highly recommend them both:
Jumpstart SEO
I cannot recommend Eb Gargano highly enough when it comes to SEO 101. She is a natural teacher: thoughtful, well organized, and thorough. In this course, you will learn how to set up your site so that it is best optimized for Google to find your content, how to choose topics and keywords without expensive tools, how to use free online tracking tools, and so much more. Taking this course will help set you free of the social media spin…because you won’t need to rely on it for traffic anymore!
In fact, in just three months after completing Jumpstart SEO, I more than tripled my average weekly organic traffic and my domain authority.
Eb offers a handful of other courses as well, including her newest courses, Profitable Blogging Jumpstart and Profitable Productivity, as well as course on email marketing, online courses, and more. Check them all out!
Keywords with Aleka
Once I had the basics down, I was ready to dive deeper dive in keyword research. I had heard about the amazing results of Aleka’s course on various blogging podcasts and was ready to invest in myself!
Aleka has two main courses: Cooking with Keywords (for food bloggers and recipe creators specifically) and Blogging with Keywords (broader course using the same principles, for all bloggers!).
Aleka’s course teaches you how to research, organize, analyze, and track your keywords using the best SEO tools.
Specifically, I learned how to use free tools like Keyword Surfer and how to better use paid keyword research tools, too. I also learned how to effectively create a longer tail keyword title so that I have a better chance of ranking for multiple keywords with one post. In addition, I learned how to come up with new content ideas by researching my competition. Finally, I learned better organization and labeling best practices like writing alt tags and properly naming file tags and folders.
And the results have been remarkable. My traffic has quadrupled in less than a year!
While I had learned many of the basic principals from SEO Jumpstart, Aleka really took it to the next level with her detailed tutorials and specificity.
If you have any questions about these tools, feel free to comment below or send me an email at [email protected].
Cheers!
Jenn
