Become a Blogger

How to Become a Blogger

In this blogging journal on how to become a blogger you will see what I have done and when in my blogging journey how to become a blogger.

I want to show you what problems I have encountered, how I solve them, what ideas I have got and how I realized them.

This will be a page with all steps I have done so do not think there will be some logic or something.

This part of the blog is without any SEO, spelling and other blogging rules. This part of the blog is what comes to my mind, that is what I wrote here.

This will give you real experience of what you can expect as a blogger.

What is Blogging

If you are just starting you will need time to invest to learn and then to make it happen.

If you have a day job, prepare to invest at least 1-2 hours per day at the start, on weekends more, to start the business.

Blogging is a business if you want to make it happen and make money out of it.

How I Started to Become a Blogger

I was reading on the Internet how to make money and I stumbled on a crypto thing in 2018. So I have seen that crypto coins are created and there are airdrops where you can make money later on.

You only need to bring more customers and share the idea about that coin. So I was looking for ways to reach more people.

One way was to write on forums and social media, but there was an even better option and that was to have a website.

So I opened a free domain on wordpress. And from there I started to write the content.

Here is an article where I explain all that I have done to start blogging for free.

How to Start the Blog and Become a Blogger

Trust me… If you are a beginner and you do not have any connection with blogging, domains, hosting, wordpress you will need to invest time to become a blogger.

You need to learn what is domain and hosting. There are free options but then you are limited.

Then when you decide to move from free option to paid option you need to pay someone to make the website for you or you will invest time to learn on your own.

It is possible, but it will take time and money to make it happen. At the end you will know a lot and you will be happy that you have done it on your own.

I have prepared tips on how to start the blog and become a blogger. So I would highly recommend reading them because I have gathered them from my own experience.

Read more about tips how to start the blog.

Become a Blogger on WordPress

When you decide to move to your own wordpress domain where you pay for domain and hosting this part will help you do that.

I have decided to move from free wordpress to paid wordpress because I could not make money from ads.

You are limited with free wordpress and you cannot put ads there. You can put other affiliate links, but you are very limited.

You cannot track all the links, there are no analytics. You cannot have plugins installed.

So, I decided to pay for a domain and hosting and start my own website. With my own website I can do whatever I want.

I am not limited by another owner who could turn off my website when he wants. And that is one of the biggest problems when you are on a free wordpress.

Here is an article where I will explain to you how I moved to BlueHost which was the cheapest option for beginners.

And I suggest you do the same because a more expensive option is not needed in the first year of blogging.

Read more: Blooging on WordPress Self Hosted Website

Number of Blog Post at the Beginning?

I remember this question when I started with a self hosted website.

I was wondering if I should create one blog post and share that one to the audience. Or should I write 5 of them and share those 5.

Because, if I have only one and someone come to my website he will have only that one blog post. Maybe that visitor wants to read more blog posts.

If the visitor sees only one blog post, maybe he will not come to my website in the future thinking that I have only one post and the website is dead.

So I was thinking maybe it is better to have more blog posts. So if someone land to my website he will have more articles to read and he will come back again.

But, in the end it doesn’t matter.

Let me give you my opinion how many blog post to have before publishing blog.

Become a Blogger and do Not Lose the Focus

If you ever start blogging know this – without having proper plan and goals you will have a big problem.

That problem I experience once a while and the main reason is that I do not have set goals and plan what I will do in the future.

If you do not set goals with deadlines you will start focusing on other stuff that will spread you all around and you will not move forward.

Many times I have found myself wondering what I will do next. Should I check analytics, should I check Google search console, should I change something on my plugins, should I read something else and so on.

This way of thinking happened to me several times and each time was when I did not have a plan for what I will do in the next days, weeks, months. And each time I remember that I needed to have a clean plan with deadlines to maintain focus on important things.

Let me share my thoughts about losing focus on blogging.

Create Page and Post Structure

In this part I want to share my experience how I structured the websites pages and blog posts, categories, navigation and all related to website overview.

You will see how I have created pillar + cluster architecture and how I went from 800 keywords to 3000 keywords in three months without adding new content. Only with pillar and cluster models.

I will share mistakes I have made creating pillar pages and how internal linking is impacting your website.

I will share how backlinks from high domains are affecting the page rank and overall Domain Authority.

Using Pillar + Cluster Structure

24.11.2021. – I have made some changes on one of the pillar pages because the page was not ranking for keywords I wanted to rank. It has been three months since I have made the change on the website structure where I have changed them to Pillar+cluster structure.

What I have changed is that I increased Pillar Page Content.

Update 19.2.2022.

After having a pillar page with a higher amount of content there was a difference in number of keywords I was ranking. So the final conclusion was that the pillar page which is acting as a hub where I am linking to other blog posts should have content.

And the content should be ranking for higher keywords with large amounts of monthly searches. The one I am going after has around 8000 searches per week based on the SEMRUSH.

But, something else I have found and that is I should have less steps needed to come from the home page to other cluster pages and posts.

To explain this in more detail here is a short explanation, but for a deeper explanation I will make another blog post or update the one about pillar page.

I had a home page and then another page where all my pillar pages were linked from. That second page did not have too much content. But it was organized which I thought would be a good user experience.

And I have even made this page a parent page in wordpress for other pillar pages. So the URL permalink for pillar pages had this second page.

I have changed that now and I have removed this second page between the home page and other pillar pages. That way I have shortened the URL for pillar pages and shortened clicking depth to reach the pillar page and cluster pages.

One more thing to remember is to have URL of each pillar page and cluster page like this:

home/pillar page

home/cluster page

and not having this:

home/pillar/cluster

The reason is to have simple URL combinations for easier modifications and update later on when you decide to change something. And I did not see any loss in URL value when having this simple combination. But on the contrary I have found it much more useful.

Become a Blogger With Technical Knowledge

In this part I want to share with you all technical issues I had with the website. When I have encountered one of the issues I have solved them by checking, learning and reading on the Internet what steps to take.

That way I gained experience about blogging overal, how the website works, plugins, updates, hosting and so on…

I have recorded steps I have taken so if the same problem appears again I will know what to do.

I can bet that you had one issue repeated in the future, but you did not know how you solved it earlier.

That is the reason why I have saved steps on how I have solved these issues and now I am sharing them with you so I hope I will help you if you encounter them.

Create Staging Site as a Blogger

It will come time when you will change something on your website for testing purposes. And to make big modifications on your live website is not a good idea.

Because it can happen that you make something on your live website and when you publish that change it crashes your website totally.

Then you need to revert back and find what the issue is, but until you do that your website could be inaccessible.

To prevent that you can make a duplicate website which is the same as the one that you are using now.

Duplicate website is meant to work on and test what you want. It is a duplicate website which is called a staging site.

Staging site or duplicate website is the same as a live website, but you can modify and change what you want and visitors will not see that change. Because it is not accessible for visitors. They still see the live website.

When you are done with the staging site and you have applied all changes and you have tested that everything is working fine then you can move that staging site to become a live website.

I have made a step by step tutorial for you how to create staging site on bluehost.

Become a Blogger With Siteground

In a year or more when you write enough content you will see that Bluehost becomes slow. Your will have issues where editing your articles or writing new articles becomes hard.

Website wordpress dashboard becomes slow, sometimes crashes.

And I had that problem with Bluehost. Because I became big for the Bluehost hosting plan. I needed to pay more for a bigger hosting plan, but I have checked first on the internet what is a better solution.

So, after searching and reading I have decided to move my website to Siteground hosting. Because Siteground was a good hosting company and many have talked about whether it is better than Bluehost.

Main reason was that Siteground is much faster, have better support.

So I have started migrating from Siteground to Bluehost on my own. I have read what must be done and I have contacted support from Siteground to help me on some steps.

I have made a guide to help you if you are thinking about switching from Bluehost to Siteground.

The results on Siteground compared to Bluehost are really great.

Website speed and wordpress dashboard speed was really fast. When you switch you will see the difference immediately.

Google Search Console Verification

One day I wanted to check the google search console how I am doing and I have received a message that google cannot verify the ownership of my website.

This was strange because setting the ownership in google search console is pretty straightforward. You set up TXT records on the hosting DNS records and that is it.

I have not changed anything lately about this because there is no reason so this error was strange. I have started to check and after a day or two the website went offline with an error “Origin Error”.

Check what was the reason and how I solved the google search console ownership issue.

Blogging Bounce Rate Sudden Drop

When doing some stuff on the blog I made a problem with google analytics. I had a sudden drop in bounce rate.

Even though that low bounce rate is great, mine was sinking all to the bottom. And that was normal.

Usual bounce rate was around 80% so this sudden drop was not a good sign.

I have started to search what is causing this issue and I have found that a plugin is causing a problem. Plugin for selling the products on the website.

Let me show what was the cause and how I have solved it. The article huge sudden drop in bounce rate will shed some light on this problem. I hope this will help you if you experience the same problem.

How to Become a Blogger With Membership Site

In this part I will talk about all that I have done since buying a membership site and what I have done to increase the revenu by making more content, email sequence, video content, and real examples for my members.

But I will also show you what problems I am facing when running a membership site as a blogger. I did not expect I would have this kind of problem running the membership site because I thought this would be the last thing to be a problem.

Funnel Conversion Rate Analysis

I have done a blogging conversion rate analysis of my funnel with three pages.

• pricing page
• checkout page and
• confirmation page

First I was getting a 30% conversion rate which was great, but I have found that  blogging conversion rate is around 3%.

Check what I have found on my membership site and what the sales funnel conversion rate analysis showed me.

Membership Non Paying Members

The biggest problem I am facing now is the non paying members. Is that because of the lost card, insufficient funds or something else.

I thought I would have much more problems with canceling memberships, but no. When a user cancels is the best part.

That means the member does not like the service.

The biggest problems are the ones that are not paying for some reason. So sometimes I cancel their membership because they do not pay and sometimes I leave them for a few days.

It can happen that they have financial problems which could be solved in a few days so I leave a few days open to pay the cost.

But, what I have decided is to cancel membership immediately for new members that did not pay not even one month. For those that have paid at least one month I give them a few days. Because if they have paid one month that means they are not the ones that only want to use without paying at all.

And there are others that use 7 day free trial and then again register with similar email and credit card to get again 7 day free trial. But, this is a small issue because there is a limit of how many credit cards and emails you can combine.

Promote Membership Affiliate Links on Fiverr

After running a membership site for a while I wanted to reach more visitors and potential buyers.

So I decided to use affiliate links to promote them on Fiverr. I have used Fiverr to find promoters and I gave them affiliate links to share on forums, social media and other websites.

But, it is not easy to find someone on Fiverr to promote the service. You need to find someone who is experienced and is covering the niche you are promoting the service in.

What I have found is that it is not an easy task to find someone. When I started to message potential Fiverr users I have received a lot of answers saying they can do it perfectly.

And they can reach millions of users with my affiliate offer.

It was strange how easily they can reach so many users. And especially in the niche I am in.

I want to emphasize that the niche in the financial industry is not an easy niche. And you need to have special groups, forums where potential customers are talking about.

So, when I have used a few of Fiverr users I have seen that it was a waste of time. The traffic did not convert and I did not receive not even close to those millions of visitors.

Check this article where I explain real examples of Fiverr gigs I have used to promote affiliate links on Fiverr.

Blogging Experience

When I have started, and even today, I like to read what others have done to be where they are now.

I want to see what steps they took, what obstacles they have encountered, what they do to make money, how they solve issues when they have them and so on.

It is valuable information that beginners in blogging have so I have decided to share my own experience with you.

In this blogging guide I will put some of my thoughts and problems I am facing now so you can see what I have done to solve them.

If you have a better solution just leave a comment.

First Months of Being a Blogger

I want to share with you what I was thinking at the beginning when I started as a blogger.

Just a small hint – I wanted to have more traffic.

I have done steps to bring traffic which at the end was not a good way. But I was learning so I can say now that was not a good way. But if I did not take those steps I would never experience and maybe I would never know what is a good way and what is not.

To give you one piece of advice I really want you to remember is that do not leave a comment anywhere just to leave a link to your website.

Check what I have done at the beginning of my blogging journey.

Journey as a Blogger – First months

Become a Blogger Journal

In this part of the blogging journal I want to show you statistics of my blog and what I have done in one of the months.

I want to give you insight into what I have done in which steps so maybe that helps you see what you could do.

Blog Traffic Statistics – October 2020

Let’s continue with details of what I have done on my blogs.

Blogging Statistics – October 2020

Blog Traffic Statistics – November 2020

Let’s continue with details of what I have done on my blogs and what stats I have.

Blog Traffic Statistics – November 2020

November 2020

Let’s continue with details of what I have done on my blogs.

Blogging Journey – November 2020

August 2021

After I bought the membership site I needed to receive payments over Stripe and Paypal.

The problem was I could not have Stripe in my country so I needed to open a company somewhere else to have it all legally set up.

So, I have decided to open a UK LTD non-resident company.

I had problems at the start because I did not know which UK company to use as an accounting company. And I needed to find it remotely.

So I have searched over the Internet and mostly the price was around 100 GBP per month. Which was too much for me at the start. I needed a less expensive option.

I have found a facebook group where members are  Looking for Bookkeepers & Accountants UK.

If you are in the same position as I was, check this facebook group and I am sure you will find a UK company for your needs.

In the end I found a company with 47 GBP per month which is much more affordable for me who wants to become a blogger.

Online Course Creation

In this blogging guide I will show you what I had to do to get my first online course.

You will see steps I have taken and which tools I have used to make my first online course.

I had problems, but I have found solutions. I have learned from the experience to be better in recording and making videos.

How to Create Online Course as a Blogger

After two years of running the blog I have started to create an online course. The reason why I have started was to make money, but also to share what I know.

I have created an e-book for selling based on the blog posts I have created. And the book did not sell at all. But I am thinking that the e-book was not a good choice at that time to sell.

Because the stuff I have written in the e-book is free online and it was not something that someone would buy. It was a beginner topic which is easily found on the internet or consumed as an online course.

So that was the reason why I started with the creation of an online course. I know that it would sell better than e-book because I see others selling it also.

I am sharing with you all the steps I took to create an online course which is now selling. You will see what is the best practice I have found out by making mistakes :).

It seems that the best way is to learn by making mistakes and not repeating them.

Check the article how to create online course

Tools for Recording Online Course

I have started to use head microphones that I have received with a smartphone. And I can say it was not so bad.

But when I bought a professional microphone the difference was huge.

When I was recording an online course I read which tool to use. And I did not use any free tools because I wanted to have professional tools from the beginning after I saw what it means to have a professional microphone.

I am using Camtasia recording tool and I would suggest everyone to use. I bought it on black Friday at a 25% discount.

Here is the article about the best simple proven tools to screen record