Profitable Blogging

So what are the best blog hosting sites?  Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and create your Wordpress blog, it needs a place to live.  And that place is called a blog host.

There are tons of web hosting sites out there, and not all are great for blogs.  So what should you look for in a good hosting site?

How Many Blogs Can You Have?

I know, you’re just getting your feet wet now, but once you’ve gotten a taste of how to make money blogging, you’ll want a second site.  Or third.  Possibly more.

In any case, I highly recommend that you look for a hosting service that allows you more than 10 blogs. 

How to tell?  In the service, look for the number of MySQL databases you can have.  Since each Wordpress blog uses a MySQL database, that will give you a good idea on the limitations.

(Not to worry; a good blog hosting service will also set up the MySQL database for you as part of the Wordpress installation.)

Which brings me to the next question.

Does the Host Have 1-Click Installs for Wordpress?

This (in my opinion) is crucial.  Unless you are totally into installing software on servers, you will need a 1-click install option for your Wordpress blog.

It used to be that Fantastico was the 1-click installation program of choice, but some of the leading blog hosting sites have created their own installs.  And the ones I’ve tried so far are very nice indeed (and very easy).

How Many Domains Are Allowed?

Some hosting plans only allow for 1 domain per account.  Some allow for unlimited domains per account.  My preference is for unlimited, but if I had to have a lower limit, it would be at least 25.

How Reliable is the Host?

Wow, this is a big one.  I have used many, many web hosts and I can tell you — reliability is absolutely, positively necessary.

Your blog cannot make you money if the host server has crashed!  Trust me on this one.

What’s the Cost?

Obviously, none of us want to pay more than necessary.  But you also want to make sure that the blog hosting site you’re considering is reliable.  So based on that, expect around $10 a month for a host that will allow you at least 25 blogs.

I know, you just want to set up just one right now.  And that’s cool.  But it’s a real pain to have to move a blog, so make sure ahead of time that you can have more domains and blogs on one account.  (Once you get bitten by the bug of writing blogs that make money, you’ll want more.)

Best Blog Hosting Sites

OK, down to the nitty-gritty — what are some good, reliable blog hosting sites that are easy to use and don’t cost an arm and a leg?

My first choice is BlueHost, which I really, really like.  They’ve just moved to a 1-click installation program called “Simple Scripts” that makes setting up your Wordpress blog extremely easy — much more streamlined than Fantastico was.
Right now they have blog hosting for $6.95 a month.

I use them, so I can vouch for their reliability and their customer service.

My second choice is HostGator.  I know several people who use HostGator who are very satisfied with it.  And if you really think you’ll want to get into blogging big-time, they have a great reseller program starting at $24.95!
They also have some .

What about GoDaddy?  I use GoDaddy a lot for domain names, but I’ve been less than thrilled with the blog hosting itself.  It seems there are some quirks with their servers.  But for registering domain names — they are great.
So check them out for domain registrations.

So there you have it — my candidates for the best blog hosting sites.  Take a look, choose the one best for you, sign up and get blogging!

You might be saying at this point, “How can I promote my website?”   Search engine traffic is the blog’s lifeblood, but ranking in those same search engines — that’s the tougher nut to crack.

Here are some ideas for promoting your website, to help it rank higher in the search engines.

Website Promotion

I’ve mentioned content as being important in the more web site traffic post, so I’ll skip that for now.  But when you get the chance, go read that post.

So let’s take a look at article marketing as a way to promote your site, and it does it in two ways.

• First, it brings traffic to your blog, from people clicking the links in either the article or your resource box (or both, depending on the article directory).
• Second, it brings backlinks, which are basically “votes” for your website.  Not to mention another way for spiders to find you.

If you have a tough time writing articles, not to worry — there are good writers out there who can craft a 400-word article for a very reasonable price.  But if you have the time and talent — the more articles, the better.

Along the lines of article writing, you can offer to do “guest author” posts for another site in your general niche (although not necessarily a competitor).  In return for a link back to your site, you can get more exposure and be viewed as an authority.

What else?  There are the older promotional methods which can still be good — things like t-shirts with your logo and/or web address on them.  You can order “by the each” at a place like Cafe Press, give them away or sell them.

Business cards never seem to go out of style, and these days you can get 250 of them for a song at some of the online vendors like VistaPrint (see link on the sidebar if you need really really really inexpensive cards). 

Promote My Website – Other Ways

Web site promotion also comes in the form of link building, which is a whole topic until itself.  Some of the promotion is up close (like making good posts in a forum related to your niche), some of it less direct. 

There are also secondary feeder sites like Squidoo and Hubpages, and all the Web 2.0 and social bookmarking sites (which I’ll cover in separate posts).  All of these should be considered when it comes to asking yourself, “How can  I promote my website?”

More web site traffic — more, more!  That’s the cry of blog owners everywhere.  If no one is coming by to write what you’ve posted, how can you be profitable? 

So, you need to find ways to get more traffic to your blog or website

Here’s the first of the tried-and-true ways for getting the search engine spiders to visit, and then send you visitors.

Once Again, Content is King

Provide content that is of very high quality on your web site. This is the first and the foremost requirement for you to increase traffic on your blog. People (not to mention the search engine spiders) should have something interesting on your site to come and read.  Which brings us to the second half of the equation; how much content, and how often?

Update Your Content Regularly

You knew I was going to mention this at some point…how often is often?  It depends on:

• How much time you have.
• How much money you have.
• How much money do you want to make?

If you don’t have a lot of time, it will be harder to update your content regularly, although there are ways around it.  But what of the burning question — how often is often enough?

It really depends on your readers and niche.  As a general rule of thumb, I’d say once or twice a week should be enough to keep the search engines interested enough to keep sending their spiders.  Obviously, though, if you can update once a day, the search engines will give you more “brownie points”.

If you don’t have the time, but you have some money, you can outsource a lot of  the content.  There are some very good article writers who will create a unique 400 word post for less than the cost of a fast-food lunch.  It’s a great way of getting more content.

If you don’t have the money and don’t have a lot of time, there are always the article directories that can provide you with content.  Just abide by the rules for making sure you give the author proper credit, and you can have fresh posts for free!

More Web Site Traffic

Did you notice my last bullet point of how much money do you want to make?  The money you make is in a direct relationship to how much time you spend updating your site.  Granted, a site that’s been around for years and has hundreds of pages may only have to update once or twice a month to stay up in the rankings.  But a brand new or fledgling site?  You need to work harder at first.

The tough part is this; you won’t always see your work rewarded quickly.  Granted, sometimes you’ll happen upon a niche and it will be earning money early and fast.  For most of us, though, it will take a few months to start seeing a regular income.

But here’s the better news; once you have built your blog or website up, it will pay you a residual income.  I have some sites I might touch a few times a year, but which bring me in a nice check every month, like clockwork.  But I had to spend the time up front, in order to reap the benefits now.

More web site traffic is what we all want as web owners.  If you’re reading this post, it’s likely that you want your blog to be profitable.  Feed it with content to keep the spiders happy, and they’ll reward you with traffic.  And the traffic in turn will reward you with income.