13 Common Grammar Mistakes to Avoid in Writing
by Rahimah Sultan
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It can be embarrassing when somebody else finds a grammar mistake in your work, but don’t let it get to you. We all make grammar mistakes.
What is a grammar mistake?
A grammar mistake is any incorrect usage of a word or a deviation from established grammatical rules.
As language continually evolves, a phrase or word choice that’s used today may have been a grammar mistake in the past.
We’ll view 13 common grammar mistakes to avoid in writing so you’ll know how to identify, fix, and steer clear of them.
Your goal is to have clear, polished, mistake-free writing. So, we’ll look at 13 common grammar mistakes and show you how to fix them.
1. Who vs. that
Use who when referring to a person. That is used for inanimate objects.
Example My brother is the one who wrote the book.
Example I bought a purse that is light to carry.
Example They’re part of an organization that promotes organic farming.
2. Affect vs. effect
Affect is a verb that means to cause something to happen. Effect is a noun that indicates a result.
Example How will the continuous rain affect construction?
Example The increasing layoffs will have a major effect on the economy.
3. Who’s vs. whose
Who’s is a contraction of who is. Whose is a relative pronoun; a possessive form of who.
Example Who’s ready to go?
Example Whose bookbag is this?
4. Who vs. whom
Who is the subject in a sentence, while whom is the object.
Example Who will be going to the banquet this weekend?
Example To whom shall I address the package?
5. Less vs. fewer
Less is used to describe an abstract or otherwise uncountable amounts of items. Fewer is used for countable numbers of items.
Example The students had less time to practice today.
Example If fewer people used disposable water bottles, there would be less plastic in landfills.
6. I.e. vs. e.g.
I.e. which is short for, id est, is used to clarify statements. E.g., short for exempli gratia, is used to provide examples.
Example I’ll be off again tomorrow, (i.e., I’m still very sick).
Example I’ve read lots of books over the past year (e.g., Undaunted, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and How Green was my Valley).
Always add a comma following these abbreviations, and enclose them in parentheses.
7. Then vs. than
Then indicates when something will happen. Than is used to compare things or people.
Example First we’ll have lunch; then go to a movie.
Example All my brothers are taller than me.
8. Each and every
Each refers to two items or the individual items in a group. Every refers to three or more items or to the group as a whole.
Example Each of my children came to visit me this year.
Example Every one of my coworkers is going to the restaurant.
9. May vs. might
May is generally used in the present tense to ask for permission and to indicate something that is likely to happen. Might is used with the past tense and to describe things that either didn’t happen or are unlikely to happen.
Example May I bring a guest to the party?
Example There might have been time for review, but the fire alarm went off.
10. Farther vs. further
Farther refers to literal distance. Further means “more.”
The mountain looked farther away than ever.
We’ll have no further communication.
11. Past vs. passed
Past can be a noun, an adjective, a preposition, or an adverb. It refers to something that has already happened. Passed is a verb.
Example My cousin told us stories about the past.
Example The bus passed on our right side.
12. Passive voice
While not inherently incorrect, many writers use the passive voice when the active voice would be a more correct, clearer choice.
Passive voice: The layout was prepared by me.
Active voice: I prepared the layout.
13. Possessive nouns
Possessive nouns are versions of nouns that show ownership. They often use apostrophes.
Example That’s John’s letter opener.
For a plural possessive noun, the apostrophe goes after the s.
Example The marchers’ instruments.
There are different schools of thought about what to do when a singular possessive noun ends in the letter s. Some say the apostrophe goes at the end, without adding an s.
Example That’s Jonas’ car.
The Chicago style requires that when a name ending in s becomes possessive, you add an apostrophe and an s.
Example That’s Jonas’s car.
These are just 13 common grammar mistakes to avoid in writing, but there are many others that people make. Practice, reading extensively, and using grammar-checking tools will help you spot mistakes and make corrections. With time, practice, and patience, you’ll be able to improve your grammar skills and become a more confident writer.
I recommend Grammarly as a checking tool. It’s free.
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Creative Writing Content Niches
by Rahimah Sultan
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When it comes to content writing, finding the right topic and angle can seem almost impossible.
If you’re balancing a lot on your plate and facing tight deadlines, you can feel stumped and uninspired. Here are some trending content writing topics to keep your writing rhythm going.
Why is having content writing topics important?
Having content writing ideas is important because it:
Saves time – if you pre-plan your content there’s time to research and write more effectively, thus, saving time and effort.
Avoids writer’s block – To avoid last-minute decisions, have a list of topics beforehand which eliminates stress and keeps your mind clear to focus on creating quality content.
Ensures variety – To meet various preferences and needs and to create diverse fresh content, keep sample topics for content writing ready.
Boosts productivity – When you have a clear map of topics, you can work more effectively promptly produce high-quality content.
Builds topical authority – You can build trust and authority in your niche by planning your content around specific topics that allow you to dive deep and showcase your expertise.
Improves scheduling – If you have content topics in advance, you can create a content calendar, which makes it easier to consistently schedule, write, and publish.
Content writing includes a large blend of niche-based topics that offer you many options to explore.
What are some niche content writing topics?
Here are seven creative writing content niches:
Science and Technology
Cybersecurity Trends And Tips
Breakthroughs In Space Exploration
Machine Learning Algorithms
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Gaming
How Robotics is Changing Industries
Latest Renewable Energy Innovations
How Blockchain Works
Advancements In Medical Technology
The Possibility of Achieving Immortality Through Science
Future Transport: Electric Vehicles, Self-Driving Cars, And Hyperloop
Fashion and Lifestyle
How to Find Your Signature Look
The Evolution of Streetwear Culture
How Clothing Impacts Our Mood and Confidence
Tips For Mixing And Matching Patterns In Fashion
Must-Know DIY Fashion Hacks
Beauty Routines For Every Skin Type
Fashion Icons of The Decade
How To Build A Capsule Wardrobe
Seasonal Wardrobe Essentials
How To Make Mindful Purchasing Decisions
Budgeting Tips And Strategies For Financial Wellness
Ways To Design A Cozy And Functional Home Office Space
Health and Wellness
Tips For Reducing Screen Time
How To Maintain A Balanced Diet
The Science Behind Intermittent Fasting
Healthy Meal Prep Ideas For The Week
The Importance Of Sleep Hygiene
Healing Herbs For Everyday Use
The Power Of Positive Thinking
Home Workouts For All Fitness Levels
The Benefits Of Yoga For Stress Management
Natural Healing Through Ayurvedic Practices
Mindfulness Practices For Busy Lives
Travel and photography
The Impact Of Travel On Personal Growth
How To Travel on A Budget
Traveling With Kids: Family-Friendly Destinations
Packing Essentials For Different Climates
Top Destinations For Adventure Seekers
Tips For Solo Travelers
Astrophotography For Beginners
Drone Photography Essentials
The Beauty Of Capturing Culture Through Photography
Landscape Photography Tips
Food and Recipes
Healthy Snacks For Busy Days
The Role Of Nutrition In Healthy Eating
Meal Planning And Prepping For Busy People
Seasonal Recipes For Fresh Produce
Cooking With Alternative Ingredients
Desserts You Can Make In Under 30 Minutes
Creative Plating Techniques For Home Cooks
Restaurant Recipe Hacks
Cooking For A Crowd: Tips And Tricks
Baking Tips For Beginners
Business and Finance
Steps To Start And Launch Your Own Business
Personal Finance Tips For Millennials
Emerging Trends In E-Commerce
The Future Of Remote Work And Its Impact On Businesses
How To Improve Your Credit Score
The Importance Of Networking In Business
Investment Strategies For Beginners
The Role Of Digital Marketing In Business Growth
Inspiring Stories Of Female Entrepreneurs
Sports and Entertainment
Upcoming Sports Events To Watch This Year
The Rise Of Women In Sports And Media
Unforgettable Moments In Sports History
The Best Sports Documentaries To Watch
How To Stay Fit Like Your Favorite Athletes
Celebrity Athletes And Crossover Careers
The Impact Of Streaming Services On Entertainment
Behind The Scenes: The Making Of A Movie
The Evolution Of Stand-Up Comedy
These content writing topics will help excite your readers enough to get them to open and further explore your blog.
Once you have suitable content writing topics lined up for your upcoming blog articles, it’s time to create a blog outline for logical content structure.
This outline should include:
Title – should be appealing enough to let reader know what your blog is about and why they should spend their time on it.
Intro – Follow the title with persuasive introduction ideas that paint a clear picture of what your blog topic will cover and what can be expected from it. Make sure to add ideas that make the reader stay instead of leaving.
Body and Headings – Identify main sections or key points you want to cover in your blog article. These sections form the bulk of your post and should be in logical order.
Divide them into main headings and subheadings. These sections will form the core of your blog article, each addressing a specific portion or idea related to your topic.
Conclusion
You need an engaging conclusion to nicely wrap up your content. Your outline must signal you to recap all the key takeaways from when you actually write the article.
To keep them reading use the following blog post best practices:
Create an Engaging Title
Understand Your Target Audience
Incorporate strategic Keywords
Use Tools to Proofread Your Content
Leverage Internal & External Linking
Check out the aforementioned 7 creative writing content niches trending topics and find the best one for your niche and write about it. Each topic holds its own potential. It’s your writing style that adds a distinctive touch and gets your content to the level of being top-ranked on Google’s search engine results page.
Types of Copywriting to Use in Your Business
by Rahimah Sultan
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What is copywriting?
Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or group to take a particular action. Copywriters help to create billboards, brochures, catalogs, jingle lyrics, magazine and newspaper advertisements, sales letters and other direct mail, scripts for television or radio commercials, taglines, white papers, website and social media posts, and other marketing communications. All this aligned with the target audience’s expectations while keeping the content and copy fresh, relevant, and effective. Wikipedia
This article discusses several types of copywriting you can use in your business.
Businesses have always needed to reach prospective customers and effectively communicate what they offer.
In our modern information age, Continue
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Five of the Best Blogging Platforms for Beginning Bloggers
by Rahimah Sultan
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What is the best blogging platform?
Through research, I’ve found the following list to be five of the best blogging platforms for beginning bloggers.
There are many popular options to choose from including Wix.com, Tumblr, Weebly, Blogspot, Joomla, Typepad, Ghost, Squarespace, and others.
We’ll focus on only five (FREE) platforms for beginning bloggers.
1. Medium
How to get started
Medium has several ways to register.
Go to Medium.com, and to avoid having to remember yet another password Click the “Get started” button.
Choose to sign in with Google or a social media account then click “OK.”
For $0 you get a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) minimalist blogging platform.
After you join, click the avatar (floating head) and select new story. You’ll land on an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor.
There’s no trial and error or guessing.
Medium’s pros:
Built-in audience of over 60 million readers!
Good for all blog types
Your blog looks professional
More business-friendly than WordPress.com
Monetization is possible with the Medium Partner Program
Medium’s Cons:
Little to no customization. Your blog will look like all other Medium blogs. Medium offers stats, but you can’t link to your Google account to use Google Analytics
2. WordPress.com
How to get started
Go to WordPress.com and click the “Get Started” button.
Enter your email address, a username, and a strong password.
For step 2, enter some details about your blog.
In step 3, enter an address for your site.
Start typing and you’ll get a list of options. Select the “Free” one.
Then, pick a plan. Again, select the “Free” option.
The “free for life” plan has numerous features.
For $0 you get:
A free WordPress.com subdomain
“Jetpack” essential features
Community support
Dozens of free themes/templates
A domain is what comes after the https:// at the top of your browser.
In the case of WordPress, the domain name is wordpress.com.
So what’s a subdomain? If the domain is the parent, the subdomain is the child. Anything between the “https://” and the domain is a subdomain.
Some examples:
alumni.harvard.edu
braves.mlb.com
finance.yahoo.com
So, if I wanted to start “Marketing Success Review” on WordPress.com, my subdomain might be
marketingsuccessreview.com.
Readers would type marketingsuccessreview.com.wordpress.com in their browser to browser to view my site.
If you’re a business blog, this is not a good look. But for a sandbox blog where you’re testing ideas, it’ll be okay.
Jetpack Essential Features
Unless you upgrade to their “business” plan, WordPress.com doesn’t permit third-party plugins. So, if hear about an amazing SEO tool plugin, you’re out of luck until you upgrade to a self-hosted version.
Nevertheless, the free plan does come with many built-in WordPress plugins that offer everything from spam protection to contact forms.
Community Support
Perhaps WordPress.com’s best feature (beyond the pricing) is its extensive support system and knowledgebase.
You can find practically anything you need to know about using their free platform in WordPress.com’s Support section. To call their collection of how-to articles merely “extensive” would be an understatement.
At the WordPress.com forum, you can see if anyone else had you same question. If you can’t find the solution, post the question yourself.
Free Themes
WordPress has dozens of free themes from which to choose for design flexibility that isn’t available with Medium and the other free platforms.
Although WordPress.com offers so much for free, it is not for anyone who wants to present a professional business blog.
WordPress.com Pros:
Suitable for a variety of blog types
Solid support articles and forum
More design options than other free platforms
Shorter learning curve if you choose to transition to self-hosted WordPress later
Website builder that’s good for more than just blogs
Premium plans are available, for those interested
WordPress.com Cons:
Not ideal for businesses
You can’t install premium or free WordPress themes and plugins (or another blogging tool) from third parties
Lack of community makes it difficult to build an audience from scratch
WordPress advertising and banners may appear next to your blog content
3. LinkedIn
How to get started
Go to LinkedIn.com
Enter your name, your email, and a strong password. Then click the “Join now” button.
You’ll be asked to answer a few more questions.
For zero money you get a free-to-use publishing platform that’s focused on professionals and business contacts.
If you’re already a LinkedIn member, publishing content will be easier than WordPress.com, Medium, or any other blogging platform, because it’s built right into your LinkedIn profile.
Click the “Write an article” button and start writing.
LinkedIn Pros:
Clean, simple design
Good for professionals and business blogging
Built-in audience of like-minded professionals
Ease of use — publishing platform is built right into your LinkedIn profile
LinkedIn Cons:
Very few customization options
Only good for professionals and businesses
You can’t schedule posts for future publishing
If you want to write posts to reach professionals and business, LinkedIn is the best free blogging platform available.
4. Instagram.com
How to get started
On your personal computer, go to Instagram.com where you’ll see the log in page.
Enter your phone number or email address, your name, your desired username, and a strong password. Then click the “Sign up” button.
Or, if you have a Facebook account, skip all that and click the “Log in with Facebook” button.
You could also do the above using the Instagram app on your mobile device.
For $0 you get a very popular social media platform that’s perfect for microblogging.
An example of microblogging is:
Uploading a great image such as a photo from your camera or a Creative Commons image that fits your current mood.
Upload your image to Instagram.
Then write a short blog post stating what you want about the image.
Anyone who focuses on highly visual topics should use Instagram.
You can have great success using Instagram as a microblogging platform if you can combine impressive visuals with short posts that pack a punch.
Instagram Pros:
Great for visual topics
Ideal platform for microblogging (short posts)
Great if your target audience primarily uses mobile devices
Instagram Cons:
Limited to 2,200 characters
Limited to one hyperlink (in your bio)
If your target audience isn’t on mobile, it’s less than ideal
5. Guest Blogging
How to get started
The best platform for building your authority is guest blogging.
The first way to get started is to determine if the blogs you like to read, (that are relevant to your niche) accept guest post submissions.
Browse their “About” or “Start” pages. Try their “Contact” page. Sometimes, they’ll make it easy and have a “Contribute” or “Write for Us” link in their navigation menu or footer.
The second approach involves using Google’s and Twitter’s search capability.
You can query a topic (for example: “blogging”) together with a search phrase (“write for us”).
Not all sites are worth your effort. Click on the results that look promising, browse them, and see if they’re a good fit. Skip the ones that aren’t and bookmark the matches.
Continue with similar queries.
Do the same on Twitter.
Type “guest post”, “guest blog post”, “guest article”, etc. in the search box. Twitter will give you a list of tweets where people used those exact phrases.
For $0 you get the chance to put your words in front of already-existing, relevant audiences and a chance to acquire fans for life.
You should guest blog if you want to build credibility and boost your authority.
You should NOT if you want to build up your own blog.
Guest blogging is no longer a great way to increase traffic to your blog.
Guest Blogging Pros:
Write for interested, targeted audiences
Fastest way to build your authority and reputation
Guest Blogging Cons:
Fastest way to destroy your authority and reputation
Not an efficient method for getting traffic to your own website
Getting published on quality sites is hard work
Time-consuming — may be hard to fit into busy schedules
WordPress.org
Technically, there’s one more free option.
WordPress.org software — the same software used by WordPress.com — is also free for everyone.
However, WordPress.org’s software isn’t actually free once you add up the other expenses.
To use the software you’ll need a blog hosting provider (aka web hosting services), you’ll need to register a domain name (some hosting providers give you a free domain, but you should keep your domain registrar and web host separate), you’ll have to install WordPress on your own web host, and you’ll also need your own domain name. All of these cost money.
This is something you’ll eventually want to do, but not right now when you’re just getting started.
So how will you know when you’re ready? One source recommends making the switch once you reach a 20% outreach success rate.
The best blogging platform depends on what you want to accomplish. There’s no one platform that fits everyone.
This article has covered Five of the Best Blogging Platforms for Beginning Bloggers.
It all boils down to what suits your needs and situation.
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12 Steps to Starting a Successful Blog
by Rahimah Sultan
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You like most people, can spend months or years creating a blog that has no chance of succeeding, then you start another one that fails or a third and fourth.
You’re not dumb or lazy. You’re just choosing the wrong topic.
1. Choose the Right Topic
First, make a list of topics that interest you. They can be your hobbies, topics you think are highly profitable, or something random you saw in a magazine.
Now ask yourself these five questions:
1. Do any current blogs on this topic have a Facebook page with more than 10k fans?
2. Are there any blogs on this topic that have more than 50k followers on Twitter?
3. Are there any books on Amazon with more than 30 reviews on this topic?
4. When you look for words and phrases connected to this topic, are there any Google ads?
5. Do any words or phrases related to this topic have more than 100k searches in Google’s Keyword Planner tool?
By answering these questions, you’ll know if there’s an existing audience for your topic.
Don’t try to be too unique or clever by hunting for an audience that no one else is serving.
It’s counterintuitive, but the more competition you have in a blogging space, the easier it is for a new blogger to find success there.
2. Choose the Right Platform
Choose the right blogging platform
There are several free blogging platforms like Tumblr, Blogspot, Wix, or Squarespace. These are fine to test your ideas and content to be sure they’re workable before creating a full-fledged blog.
But when you’re ready to build an audience and make money online, a self-hosted WordPress blog is the way to go.
WordPress is open source and technically free, but you have to buy a hosting plan to install WordPress on your own web host and purchase a domain name.
If you’re serious about blogging, you need to set up your blog on a firm foundation.
3. Choose a Domain Name
When choosing a custom domain name for your blog, consider using these three strategies:
Name the audience. The simplest way is tocall out the audience in the domain name. (Examples: SmartShopper.com, FashionDesign.com, AFineParent.com)
Name the topic. (MakingJewelry.com, EasyCasseroles.com, PaleoHacks.com)
Name the benefit. (BeABetterWriter.com, BeABetterPainter.com, Woodworking.com)
Use these strategies to make a list of 10-20 domain names. Use a blog name generator tool like NameStation to get many ideas at once.
Once you’ve decided on a name, use Namecheap’s Beast Mode to check availability.
Give yourself a few days to a week to make a decision.
4. Get Web Hosting
You pay a small fee to keep your website online, handle all your visitors, provide customer support, back up your website, manage the security of your website, etc.
Although website hosting costs money, a good bit comes along with it.
It’s possible to get blog hosting and a registered domain from the same place, but it’s not recommended because if you ever decide to switch to a different web hosting company, the process can be complicated. You can save yourself future headaches by keeping your domain registrar and blog host separate.
You can do a Google search to compare and determine the best web hosting for your needs.
Once you have your web hosting set up, you need to use a registrar like NameCheap to register your domain.
5. Install WordPress
Now that your domain and web host are connected, it’s time to install WordPress. It’s not complicated.
These days most hosting providers offer one-click WordPress installation.
To log into your WordPress dashboard use your favorite browser and go to WordPress login URL by appending /wp-admin (or /admin or /login or /wp-login) to the end of your domain name.
Examples:
yourdomain.com/wp-admin
www.yourdomain.com/admin
yourdomain.com/login
www.yourdomain.com/wp-login
You’ll be taken to your WordPress login page.
Enter the username and password you created earlier.
Click Log In.
6. Choose a WordPress Theme to Design Your Blog
Don’t get bogged in details. Focus on making your site functional. You can always make changes later.
Content is the important thing to focus on.
Enter the username and password you created earlier.
Click Log In.
Your theme is the design of your website and dictates how your blog looks to the world.
If you want a free WordPress theme, choose Astra (https://wpastra.com/?bsf=2922&campaign=how-to-start-a-blog).
If you want a premium blog theme, choose Astra Pro which has an advanced page builder that lets you customize your design.
Choose the theme that best fits your needs and situation and download and install it.
First way: To install a free theme from WordPress.org:
Enter a theme name or a chosen feature (Example: “minimalist”) in the Search themes… field
Click the Install button
Second way: If you want to install a WordPress theme you downloaded from a third party, click the Upload Theme button and:
Click the Choose File button
Find the third-party theme you downloaded to your computer (Example: premium-theme.zip) and select it
Click the Install Now button
To activate a WordPress Theme
Immediately after installing your WordPress theme, you’ll be given the option to “Activate” or “Preview” it.
If you want to publish the theme immediately to your website, click the Activate button. If not
1. In the left-hand navigation pane, go to Appearance
2. Choose Themes
Then you’ll see every theme you’ve installed and the default “themes” that are automatically installed by WordPress. Find the theme you want to use and click the Activate button.
You’re done.
Now your new blog design is visible to the world but not yet ready.
You need to adjust its functionality by installing a few WordPress plugins.
7. Install WordPress Plugins
WordPress is filled with features, and plugins offer even more.
There are thousands of free and third-party plugins—virtually a plugin for everything. There are specific types or categories you need, but there’s no such thing as an essential plugin.
There are six types of plugins you need to install.
1. Performance Plugins
2. Security Plugins
3. Backup Plugins
4. SEO Plugins
5. Social Sharing Plugins
6. Email List Building Plugins
You need a good performance optimization plugin to “cache” your content so it loads faster. If your blog is slow, your readers will bounce and Google will rank you lower in search engine results.
For a performance plugin, WP Super Cache is simple, maintained by the company behind WordPress, Automattic, and it’s free.
You can easily protect your site with the security plugin iThemes Security which has a one-click setup wizard. The cost is free, and there’s also a pro version with extra features.
UpdraftPlus strikes a good balance between features, flexibility, and ease of use. It has a 4.8 out of 5.0 rating on the WordPress plugin repository, and it’s actively updated by its developers.
There’s a free and a $70 pro version.
For SEO Yoast SEO is the gold standard of WordPress SEO plugins. It has both free and premium versions. The free version offers everything you need.
Social Warfare doesn’t slow down your website and offers unique features like “Click to Tweet” boxes and Pinterest-specific images and infographics.
The free version has all the basics you’ll need, and the pro version is only $29 annually.
Use Convert Pro to turn blog traffic into leads so you can continue to engage with them.
You can get it for free or pay $99 annually or $399 for a lifetime license.
To activate a WordPress plugin you can click the Activate button that appears immediately after you install it or:
1. In the left-hand navigation pane, go to Plugins
2. Choose Installed Plugins
3. Find your plugin and click Activate
8. Blog Set up and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
If you want to start a blog that brings in traffic or if you want to drive your content to page one of Google, you have to learn SEO.
To guarantee search engines like Google and Bing can find your blog, make sure the following are unchecked:
1. In the left-hand navigation pane of your WordPress dashboard, hover over Settings
2. Click Reading
3. Confirm “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is unchecked
Create an XML Sitemap (and Submit Your Sitemap to Search Engines)
“A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them. Search engines like Google read this file to crawl your site more efficiently. A sitemap tells search engines which pages and files you think are important in your site, and also provides valuable information about these files. For example, when the page was last updated and any alternate language versions of the page.”
A sitemap helps confirm Google can discover the new content you create, when your blog is new and has few external links pointing to it.
To create an XML Sitemap using the Yoast SEO plugin recommended earlier:
1. In the left-hand navigation pane of your WordPress dashboard, hover over SEO
2. Click General
3. Click the Features tab
4. Scroll down to the XML sitemaps option and make sure the switch is toggled to On
Now you have an XML sitemap for your blog. Next give it to Google, Bing, and other search engines.
Before leaving the Yoast SEO plugin, copy the URL of your sitemap:
1. Click the question mark icon next to XML sitemaps
2. Click the See the XML sitemap link
Your sitemap will open in a new tab in your browser.
Copy the URL in the address bar and save it.
The steps for submitting your sitemap are different from search engine to search engine.
Here are the most popular ones:
To submit your sitemap to Google Search Console
1. Go to Google Search Console and sign in using your Google account
2. In the left-hand pane, select your website
If you haven’t added your website to Google Search Console, you’ll need to click “Add property” and follow the steps provided before continuing below.
3. Under Index, click the Sitemaps option
4. In the Add a new sitemap section, enter the URL you saved earlier and click Submit
Bing Webmaster Tools
1. Log into Bing Webmaster Tools. Create an account if you haven’t done so.
2. Under the My Sites section, click your website
If you haven’t added your website to Bing Webmaster Tools, enter your blog’s URL in the Add a Site section and click the ADD button.
That’s it.
You’ve submitted your sitemap successfully to Google and Bing.
Permalinks structure
WordPress sets the links on your blog to the following format by default:
yourdomain.com/?p=123
No one knows why, but you need to update this link structure before you publish ANY content.
Here’s how:
1. In the left-hand navigation pane, hover over Settings
2. Click Permalinks
3. Under Common Settings, set the option to Post name
Install an SSL Certificate so Your URL Begins with https Instead of http. Here’s why:
Readers will know your website is safe
Your website will be safe thanks to the encryption of readers’ sensitive data and personal info
Google sees it as a ranking signal, which means not having an SSL certificate will hurt your content’s rankings in search results.
How to Install an SSL Certificate
Log into your account
Click the Go to cPanel button
In the Security section, click Let’s Encrypt
Select your domain name, choose the Let’s Encrypt SSL option, and click the Install button
A few moments later, your SSL certificate will be up and running!
9. Your First Blog Post
To start your blog post in WordPress
1. In the left-hand pane of your WordPress dashboard, hover over Posts
2. Click Add New
You’ll be able to add a post title— aka headline, write your post, choose your category, tweak HTML and CSS, add free stock photos, etc.
The steps are alike for adding a new blog page in WordPress, an About page, a Contact page, etc.:
1. In the left-hand pane of your dashboard, go to Pages
2. Click Add New
For detailed instructions on how to navigate the classic content editor, WordPress offers a detailed support article.
10. Boost Traffic, Promote Blog, and Master Social Media
You should spend as much time promoting your posts as you do writing them. Preferably, you’ll spend more time promoting than writing them.
Here are 4 Tips for promoting your posts
1. Focus on one Social Platform, as There are too Many out There.
For now, pick only one. As there are only so many hours in a day.
2. Avoid These Traffic Mistakes That are a Waste for Beginners.
a. Commenting on Popular Blogs
b. Submitting Your Site to Directories
c. Trying to go Viral on Redditt, Hacker News, etc.
d. Paying for a Unique Design
3. Reach out to Influencers to Make Powerful Friends.
4. Pay for Facebook Ads
Wait until you have a solid foundation in place like reaching 1,000 email subscribers and you have traffic rolling in. Then consider supercharging your efforts by learning the ins and outs of Facebook’s ad network.
11. Build Your List
Get started now with building your email list. Start building it on day one!
Whether you’re just starting out or you’re an email marketing pro, there are numerous email marketing services available to meet your needs. You can go to Google and check and compare services and pricing.
12. Make Money
When you’re just starting out, whatever you do, DO NOT cover your blog in Google Adsense, because:
1. Blog ads pay peanuts
2. They distract your readers
3. They make your blog look sleazy and cheap
The best monetization method for bloggers is to build an audience that trusts them and then offer high-quality products or services that will genuinely help that audience.
Affiliate Marketing helps with this process by:
letting you introduce your readers to a product or service from a trusted source
Your readers looking at the product/or service, deciding if it will help them, and purchasing it
You earning a commission on the sales
With affiliate marketing you win in multiple ways. You help your audience, you earn money, and — most importantly — you learn what types of products and services your audience buys.
This article covers a lot but it’s only a beginning. Besides these twelve steps to starting a successful blog, there’s so much more you’ll learn as you go along.
Reasons Why Link Building is Important for SEO
by Rahimah Sultan
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Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
In the pre-Google days of the internet, search engines like Yahoo and Alta Vista were dominant players and their search results were 100% based on the content on a webpage.
Then came Google.
Google’s now-famous algorithm changed the game. Google looked at how many people linked to that page instead of simply analyzing the content of the page.
Almost 20 years later, links remain the best way to establish the quality of a webpage. Therefore, backlinks remain Google’s go-to ranking indicator.
Because of updates like Google Penguin, Google now focuses on link quality (not just link quantity).
If the page linking to you is a PageRank powerhouse, that link will have a BIG effect on your rankings.
That’s because links from authoritative pages pass more authority (also known as PageRank) to your site.
Now, let’s continue with the reasons why link building is important for SEO.
What is the importance of backlinks?
Link building is the system of building one-way hyperlinks (also called backlinks) to a website with the purpose of improving search engine visibility. Some common link-building strategies include content marketing, email outreach, building useful tools, broken link building, and public relations.
Content marketing played a substantial role in the development of backlink building. Webmasters started creating high-quality content that naturally drew links from other websites, instead of only focusing on acquiring backlinks.
Website owners could increase their chances of earning organic backlinks by producing informative, valuable, and shareable content.
This shift in strategy supported Google’s emphasis on user experience and the importance of providing important content to online audiences.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
1. What is backlink building; Why it’s important for building authority
The process of getting links from other websites to your own is backlink building.
These links act as a vote of confidence, demonstrating to search engines that your website is authoritative and trustworthy.
Backlink building is essential for building authority. It drives organic traffic and helps improve your website’s visibility in search engine results.
2. How has backlink building evolved?
Backlink building is now more focused on quality rather than quantity. As search engines have become smarter at detecting spammy and low-quality links, it’s essential to focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable websites. And, the importance of relevance and context has increased, with search engines giving more weight to backlinks that come from websites in the same industry or niche.
3. What are some effective strategies for backlink building?
Important strategies for backlink building include influencer outreach, guest blogging, and creating valuable content that naturally invites backlinks. Guest blogging involves writing high-quality articles for other websites in exchange for a backlink to your site. Influencer outreach involves building relationships with influential people or brands in your industry and getting them to mention your website or link to it. Creating valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks involves producing engaging, informative, and shareable content that other websites will desire to link to.
4. Are there risks or pitfalls to avoid?
When building backlinks, there are risks and pitfalls to avoid. One common one to avoid is engaging in black hat SEO techniques, like buying or exchanging links. This can lead to penalties from search engines. It’s very important to avoid spammy link building practices, such as bulk directory submissions or comment spamming. You should focus on building natural and high-quality backlinks that add value to both your website and those websites linking to you.
5. How can I assess the quality of a potential backlink?
You can consider several factors to assess the quality of a backlink. You can first check the website’s domain authority and page authority using tools like Moz’s Domain Authority or Ahrefs’ Domain Rating. Look for websites with a higher domain authority as they are more likely to pass on effective link juice. And, consider the relevance of the website to your niche and the setting in which the link will be placed. A backlink from a highly reputable and relevant website will have a greater effect on your authority.
6. Is it better to have a few quality backlinks or lots of low-quality backlinks?
Now, it’s better to have a few high-quality backlinks than many low-quality backlinks. Search engines have become more high-tech in evaluating the quality of backlinks, and they prioritize authority and relevance. A few high-quality backlinks from reputable websites in your industry will have a more significant impact on your authority and search engine rankings than many low-quality backlinks.
7. Does it take long to see the results of backlink building?
The time can vary for seeing the results of backlink building. It depends on factors like the competitiveness of your industry, the quality of the backlinks you acquire, and the frequency of search engine crawls. Generally, it can take several weeks to months before you start seeing the impact of your backlink-building efforts. Patience and consistency are key when it comes to building authority through backlinks.
8. Can I remove or disavow bad backlinks?
You can remove or disavow bad backlinks. If you have acquired low-quality or spammy backlinks that could harm your website’s authority, it’s recommended to try removing them by contacting the website owners and requesting removal. If that fails, you can use the Google Disavow Tool to tell search engines to ignore those backlinks when evaluating your website’s authority. However, it’s important to exercise caution and only disavow links that are actually harmful.
9. Are there alternatives to backlink building for authority?
Although backlink building is a highly effective strategy for building authority, there are other methods you can consider. You can focus on creating high-quality content that attracts organic traffic and engagement. If you consistently produce valuable content and optimize it for search engines, you can build authority over time. Another way is to leverage social media platforms and engage with your audience to establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
10. Should you hire a professional for backlink building?
It can be beneficial to hire a professional for backlink building, especially if you are short on time, expertise, or resources to execute an effective backlink-building strategy. Professionals can help you identify high-quality backlink opportunities, navigate the complexities, and develop outreach strategies. However, you must choose a reputable and experienced professional or agency to ensure ethical and effective practices are followed.
Building backlinks is an ongoing process that requires a well-thought-out strategy, time, and effort.
Some important effective strategies for link building are:
1. Creating High-Quality Content
Creating high-quality content is the foundation of a successful backlink building strategy. You should focus on creating well-researched unique and valuable content that provides value to your target audience. When you do this, other websites are more likely to link to it.
2. Reaching out to influencers and industry experts
Ask influencers and industry experts in your niche to share your content or to collaborate on a project. When they link to your website, it can substantially boost your credibility and authority.
Building relationships and using personalized outreach emails with influencers can go a long way in acquiring valuable backlinks.
3. Guest Posting
Guest posting entails writing articles for other websites in your industry or niche. This lets you showcase your expertise and offer value to a new audience. Then, you can include a link back to your website within the guest post. Focus on high domain authority and relevance to your industry when choosing websites for guest posting.
Always remember that building backlinks takes patience and time. Focus on quality as opposed to quantity and always prioritize creating valuable content that people want to link to. Here, we’ve covered some of the reasons why link building is important for SEO.
7 of the Most Common Types of Content Marketing and Some Future Trends
by Rahimah Sultan
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Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
With the surge of AI where everybody can publish generic blog posts, remember the foundation of high-quality content is sharing authentic, first-hand experiences.
In its latest search engine updates, Google says content should be helpful and come from human experience.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is the publishing of written and visual material online to attract more leads to your business. These materials can include e-books, infographics, blog posts, videos, web pages, and more.
It isn’t just publishing a shallow piece of content that offers little value. The focus is on making valuable content that your audience can discover themselves while browsing.
Content marketing is the planning, creating, distribution, sharing, and publishing of content through channels like social media, blogs, websites, podcasts, press releases, apps, print publications, and more. The goal of content marketing is to reach your target audience and increase brand awareness, engagement, sales, and loyalty.
Some of the most common types of content marketing are:
1. Online Content Marketing
Online content marketing is any material you publish online, but specifically, it applies to your web pages.
With a strong online content marketing strategy you’ll be able to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and get in front of the right people at the right time and immediately engage visitors with specific content about your products or services.
2. Social Media Content Marketing
There are billions of social media users worldwide so it’s easy to see why many businesses invest in social media marketing.
There are several platforms to work with including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Snapchat. Each one offers various ways to create and share content, like photos, pre-recorded videos, pre-recorded videos, live videos, and stories.
3. Infographic Content Marketing
Infographics display content, information, and data in an easy-to-understand graphic format that includes a mix of simple wording, short statements, and clear images. These are a great way to effectively communicate your content. They work well if you’re trying to simplify an educational or a complex topic so all audience members can understand it.
4. Blog Content Marketing
A blog is a great source of inbound content that allows you to be creative in your choice of topic and writing. You can use your blog to promote related content using links and social share buttons as well as incorporate product information.
5. Video Content Marketing
According to research, 91% of businesses video as a marketing tool.
You can use video marketing to help build a strong bond with your audience, boost conversions, and improve ROI. You can also choose to share your video content on landing pages, social media platforms, or on a co-marketer’s website.
6. Podcast Content Marketing
Experts predict that in the future over 71 million people will listen to podcasts. That’s 10 million more than the current listeners across the Spotify and Apple Podcast platforms. This is the reason many businesses and media outlets create and share their own podcasts.
Since podcasts can be about any topic, you have plenty of room for a lot of creativity.
You decide the pace of episodes, guests, where you advertise the podcast, and the length of each episode.
7. Paid Ad Content Marketing
You can reach a broad audience with paid ads and position yourself in all the places you want to be seen. Pairing paid ads and inbound marketing is especially beneficial.
Paid ads can be shared on landing pages, social media, banners, and in sponsored content.
What are some content marketing trends?
Google says content should be helpful and come from human experience. This is one of numerous ways to increase your traffic.
Here are some ways content marketing is moving forward and how to use them to your advantage.
1. Use of AI
The role of AI is to scale and improve, not to come up with the original insight that hasn’t been shared before.
AI writing tools base output on information already somewhere on the internet – other blogs.
For your content to work for you, it has to stand out. The best way to make that happen is by sharing expert insights. AI can’t give you unique, experience-based ideas.
Producing content requires much more than just pumping out text. For it to be valuable for readers, it needs a proper strategy, in-depth research, first-hand knowledge of the industry, and a person to put it all together in a way that’s relatable to readers.
It’s best to use AI to generate top-level outlines, like a skeleton to set a flexible foundation that can be modified later. Then using your expertise, you can elaborate on the details and add insights and depth that only a human can present.
2. First-Hand Experience
Prioritize sharing first-hand experience. The public loves other people’s stories. If you don’t have expertise in a particular area, you can interview people who do and base your article on their insights.
3. Source Content
One of the top-ranking factors for content marketing is backlinks, so publish “Be the Source” content to get more traffic, links, and shares from your content marketing.
4. Authority
Participate in establishing authority in your area of expertise.
Google prefers content created by knowledgeable and reputable people. Setting up yourself as an authority in your area of expertise improves the credibility of your content.
This is really important now when there’s a lot of AI-generated content on the internet.
You want your content to have a face and a story. This will boost your content’s relevance and trustworthiness in the eyes of users and in search engines. Search engines like Google must decide between high- and low-quality content.
5. Leverage
Use community contributions to boost the credibility and depth of your content by tapping into the collective expertise and experiences of a diverse group.
You can do this by:
a) Collaborating with industry experts in your field to create content and inviting them to share insights.
b) Organizing Q&A sessions with experts or influential people in your industry through live streams, webinars, or interviews.
c) Develop collaborative projects where several contributors can add their expertise. This could be a blog post, a webinar, a research paper, or an industry-related guide.
d) Leverage UGC (User-Generated Content). Urge your audience to contribute their ideas or experiences. This can be through comments, social media interactions, or guest posts.
Promote their work on your platforms as part of the collaboration.
Be sure to give proper credit when you use other people’s content, whether it’s from experts or UGC.
6. User-Generated Content
A bit more about UGC.
Users or customers create and share content about your brand or product which may include images, reviews, social media posts, or videos, which you can then use in your marketing endeavors.
Instead of using traditional search engines like Google for information, many young people turn to platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Especially when they’re looking for how-to guides or local restaurant recommendations.
There are two main benefits of using UGC:
They prioritize content that comes from other customers, such as unboxing, reviews, and lifestyle videos featuring your product and now that users are creating content for you, you get to:
1. Accelerate the content generation process
2. And you get authentic content that your audience can relate to
7. Repurpose Content
A great way to scale up your content marketing, without starting over each time you want to create a post for a new format, is repurposing your content on different platforms. Content repurposing is now a hot content marketing trend.
But, over the last few years, people’s standards for content have risen a lot. You can no longer just copy and paste a section a section from your blog post and publish it on social media nor can you just read an article into a microphone and call it quits.
But you can match the content to each format.
For example, repurposing a blog post for a YouTube video requires you to add elements at the beginning like a relatable story, use strategies that work well for the video, and rewrite portions to make sense in the new format.
Another example is reusing steps and tips, as you don’t have to repurpose a total piece of content. As an alternative, take the best sections from a current piece of content and reuse them elsewhere. Using this approach allows you to highlight specific, valuable parts of your content on platforms or in different formats.
8. Emerging Topics
Another way for your content to stand out is jumping on developing trends BEFORE they take off.
Use Google Trends to confirm that a keyword is growing or shrinking. And check out the “Related queries” section for your chosen topic.
First, check out a keyword you think might be trending up.
Then, go to the bottom of the page and check out the “Related queries” list.
Although Google-related queries are helpful, a check for exploding topics is better.
9. Improve Content Design
Improve your content design and user experience to suit Google’s algorithms for site speed, navigation ease, and user interaction when ranking websites. When your site loads fast, answers users’ queries, and is easy to navigate, people will stay on your site and interact with it, and they’re more likely to visit other pages of your site.
To improve UX (user experience), you need to:
a) Improving site speed
b) Being thoughtful about pop-up use
c) Design an easy-to-navigate page layout
d) Make call-to-actions and monetization contextually relevant
e) Link only to genuinely helpful content
f) Answer user intent early in your content and not hide important information at the bottom
10. Explainer Visuals
Custom explainer visuals like videos and graphics like screenshots and custom diagrams, are essential in explaining complex concepts.
Focus on creating content that is informative, engaging, and visually appealing.
Design graphics that visually represent data or explain steps needed to do something complex. Establish a YouTube presence. It’s a great place to distribute your content, and Google features YouTube videos on the first page of SERP.
Embedding YouTube videos in your article makes it more engaging and it’s an even greater way to distribute your YouTube videos. If you have a blog and a YouTube channel, embed your videos in your articles to help readers understand the topic even deeper and to increase your video views.
11. Distribute Your Content via Email
Continue distributing content by “personalized” email which involves providing value, encouraging interactions, and building trust. Email is still an important marketing trend.
12. Streamline Content Operations
Streamlined content operations refer to the structured and efficient management of content creation and distribution processes that include:
Setting clear content objectives
Having clear roles and responsibilities
Mapping your content creation process
Organizing tasks and projects
Incorporating effective tools for content planning, writing, and SEO optimization
Continuing to optimize and repurpose your content
Here you have 7 of the most common types of content marketing and future trends. Now you can put a strategy together and work on creating content that will offer real value to your audience and significantly increase your website traffic.
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Get Started in Affiliate Marketing This Year
by Rahimah Sultan
![](http://marketingsuccessreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/photo-from-blog-1.jpg)
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
Affiliate marketing is a versatile flow of revenue that you can leverage no matter what your niche or industry. It’s a great way to monetize your web traffic and earn added income.
While it is possible to “earn money while you sleep,” as you’ve seen advertised, it takes work. Affiliate marketing is certainly one of the best ways to generate nearly passive income online, but you must go about it the correct way. This article covers some general information that you can use, if you want to get started in affiliate marketing this year.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is promoting and selling someone else’s product or services for a commission. Although it’s a simple concept, the actual process can involve a lot of moving parts.
In affiliate marketing there are sellers who create affiliate programs and make available unique links that the affiliates use to promote the seller’s products. These links are unique to each affiliate marketer to track which marketer makes a sale.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
When someone clicks on the affiliate link, a cookie (a small file used by web servers to save browsing information), is stored in their browser. This cookie lets the seller know who sold the product or service and lets the affiliate earn the commission even if the person decides not to buy immediately. Cookies have an expiration date, so to get credit for a sale, the purchase must be made before the cookie expires.
For example, if you’ve clicked on an affiliate link that expires in 30 days but decided not to buy the product and you go back a few days later and make the purchase, the affiliate marketer will get credit for that purchase because it occurred within the 30-day window of the cookie being stored.
Who Are the Participants?
There are three to four key participants in affiliate marketing that include:
Affiliates: people who promote the product or service
Sellers: the creators of the product or the people who are selling the product or service
Networks: networks managing the affiliates (optional)
Consumers: end-users of the product or service
Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these participants.
Affiliates
Affiliates, sometimes called publishers, can be individuals or businesses. More often than not, affiliates are content creators in the same niche of the product they’re promoting. They promote products and services through content like social media posts, blogs, videos, and a number of other types of content. Affiliates can also use paid ads to bring in traffic, but there are typically rules around the keywords that affiliates can use for the products they’re promoting, such as not using the brand name or trade names of the products.
Sellers
The sellers, who can be individuals or companies, create the products or services that affiliates promote. They also pay affiliate commissions for sales.
Networks (optional)
An affiliate network connects publishers with companies who want to promote their products or services like influencers or blog owners.
Many sellers choose to work with an affiliate network to manage their affiliate marketing programs. This network handles third-party checks and manages relationships between sellers and affiliates. ShareASale, Awin, Amazon Associates, ClickBank, and Rakuten Advertising are some of the top affiliate marketing networks.
Consumers
Consumers are the people who buy products and services through affiliate links.
How Do Affiliate Marketers Get Paid?
Usually, affiliates are paid when a person completes some type of action like a click, form submission, or sale.
How Much Do Affiliates Make?
Affiliate earnings can vary greatly depending on what industry they’re in, the program they join, the commission rate, the price of the products they’re promoting, their marketing skills, and audience size.
What are the benefits of affiliate marketing?
Passive Income
You can make income any time of day or night with affiliate marketing, which makes it a nearly passive income option. You only have to create content and do promotions. You don’t have to be actively participating in the transaction to make it occur. With a system set up to keep things running, you have the potential for a large return with very little continuing effort.
Flexibility
You have incredible flexibility to do what you want and still bring in revenue for your business. You don’t have to create, store, produce, ship, or provide support for the product, you just sell it. This saves you many hours of work. Just choose products you like and think your audience will like, create the content for promoting the products, and then do the actual promotion.
Cost-Effective
It takes money and sometimes a lot of money to start your own business, especially one selling physical products. Affiliate marketing offers you a low-cost way to start your own business and you’ll only need to consider the time it will take to create content and promote.
Low Risk
Another benefit of affiliate marketing is that it’s low risk. As an affiliate, you don’t have to invest money to create or store products. Your only role is marketing and promoting the products to your followers and paid traffic (if you decide to go that route). Even if you use blogging to promote affiliate products, it won’t take a lot of money and if you decide it’s not working out and you quit, it won’t be huge loss. There are large numbers of affiliate products and services you can promote. If one doesn’t work, try another.
No Customer Support
An affiliate marketer doesn’t have to worry about customer support for the products and services you sell. For many affiliate marketers, this is a great relief and gives you the freedom to start your own business without thinking about how to deal with actual customers.
Be sure that the products or services you promote to your followers are of good quality that you would actually use. You want people to get to know, like, and trust you. So, be particular with the affiliate products and services you promote.
You can promote affiliate products through product reviews, in your email newsletter, product comparisons, paid ads, on your blog, and more.
Now that you have a relatively good idea of what it’s all about, you could get started in affiliate marketing this year, even today.
Try this viral mailer that pays.
How to Start a Home Business
by Rahimah Sultan
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Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
A home-based business can offer a quicker startup path, lower startup costs, and more flexibility.
Nevertheless, to succeed you still have to stick to the same startup steps as every other business and there are added considerations due to working from home. Now, on with how to start a home business.
What should you consider before starting a home business?
1. Questions to raise before starting a home-based business
Focus and motivation
Can you stay focused and motivated?
When working from home, you’ll have many distractions—pets, TV shows, household chores, or wanting to take a nap.
Support system
Will you have a support system?
Is there a mentor, family, or someone else you can count on for support—you should have someone to count on when you get stuck. Preferably someone with remote business experience who can relate to your situation.
Goals
What are your goals? What is your vision for the long term? Why do you want to start a business and why from home? Depending on your answers, you may want to rethink starting a remote business.
Suitability of your home for business
You need to establish whether or not your home setup is suitable for running a business. If not, you may have to make changes to create a suitable working area.
Balance work and personal life
Will you be able to maintain a balance between your personal and work life?
If you’re a business owner, this is not guaranteed. This balance can be more difficult for a home-based business, as your office is only a step away.
These questions are geared specifically toward starting a business at home and not for first-time entrepreneurs.
2. Business idea that works remotely
Come up with a business idea that will work remotely. It should solve a problem, have a market demand, and fit your goals. Even if it meets these criteria, it may not work well as a home-based business. Additional things to consider include:
Digitalization: Can your business be operated completely online or with minimum physical interaction?
Independence: Can it be run by you without the need for a large team or physical infrastructure?
Scalability: Can you scale the business without substantial physical infrastructure?
Supply chain: Does the business require minimal physical inventory or a supply chain you can manage remotely?
Remember to conduct thorough research to check for demand. An idea can look great on paper and meet the requirements of remote functionality, but without demand, it won’t be practical.
3. Business plan
Write a business plan to help you think through every aspect of your home-based business.
In the business plan, you describe the product or service.
Document your research.
Create a financial plan.
Outline marketing and sales efforts.
Provide an overview of your procedures, team, and business structure.
As you’re just starting, pay particular attention to the day-to-day operations, financials, and product/service description.
Operations include the day-to-day outlook and the space you’ll be using.
Financials include start-up costs and how you will scale to make a profit. Can you do this from home or will you need another space?
The product/service description will detail why it can be sold from the comfort of your home and whether there is a competitive advantage for doing so.
Although a detailed business plan is essential, you can start with a one-page plan that can easily be updated.
4. Legal requirements
There are legal requirements for any business and a home-based business is no exception. You have to:
Choose a business structure – https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/launch-your-business/choose-business-structure
Register a business name
Apply for a state and federal tax ID
Get the correct licenses and permits
You’ll need to check on:
A home business permit
Zoning laws
Homeowners Association (HOA) rules
Business insurance; although not a legal requirement, you may need to purchase additional coverage if your home insurance policy does not cover home-based businesses.
5. Costs and finances
Figure out your startup costs and finances. These costs can widely vary depending on the kind of business and your circumstances. For sufficient funds, a detailed budget and forecasting revenue and expenses are essential.
The minimum to account for is:
Home office setup
Utilities
Technology and equipment
Legal expenses
Marketing and advertising
Open a business bank account immediately to separate your personal and business finances to easily track performance and avoid potential legal issues.
6. Workspace
Choose a dedicated space to run your business, an area with minimal distractions, and a way to separate your work and home life. If you have limited space, set strict boundaries for how and when to use this space.
When you have a space in mind, make the necessary adjustments to turn it into a productive work environment. Consider the following:
Bright natural lighting
Creative storage for files and supplies
Prioritize comfort with a good back-supporting chair
Upgrade your equipment with a high-speed internet connection. The rest depends on your business idea.
7. Time management
Manage your time by:
Using project management tools
Setting clear expectations
Set regular breaks
Regularly communicate using tools like Slack or Zoom to stay connected with your team, contractors, or vendors to facilitate collaboration.
Avoid multitasking
Focus on one task at a time to ensure quality work and avoid mistakes.
What are some home-based business ideas?
1. Freelance Writing and Content Creation
The demand for skilled writers is limitless. Use your writing skills to create engaging, SEO-optimized content that attracts both readers and search engines.
The key to standing out is creating content that not only engages readers but also aligns with SEO best practices. By seamlessly integrating relevant keywords and providing valuable information, freelance writers can elevate their content, ensuring it not only captures the audience’s interest but also ranks favorably on SERPs (search engine results pages).
2. Virtual Assistance Services
Businesses and entrepreneurs often need support with managing administrative tasks. You can position yourself as a vital resource by offering virtual assistance services such as scheduling, handling emails, and other organizational responsibilities.
3. E-commerce Store for Niche Markets
Set up an e-commerce store and take advantage of the growing trend of niche markets. Find a specific niche with high demand and low competition. To ensure visibility in the search engines optimize your product listings with well-researched keywords. Use a platform like Shopify or Etsy to kick off your online store.
As there’s a current surge in the realm of e-commerce and niche product stores, there’s an opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can carve out a distinctive space for their products in this market by carefully identifying a niche with high demand and minimal competition.
4. Online Coaching and Consulting
If you have expertise in a particular field such as fitness, personal development, or business strategy, consider online coaching or consulting. People are willing to pay for valuable insights. Use a well-optimized website to establish your credibility and use SEO strategies to attract clients seeking your knowledge.
5. Social Media Management
Help clients build and maintain a strong presence across various platforms. Use effective strategies to increase engagement and followers ensuring your clients stand out in the crowded digital landscape. Deliver services that aid clients in establishing and nurturing a strong presence across various platforms. Utilize effective strategies to increase engagement and followers, ensuring your clients stand out amid the digital competition.
6. Graphic Design Services
If you have graphic design skills, convert your passion into profit by offering design services. A curated portfolio showcasing your work, optimized with relevant keywords, serves a dual purpose. It not only attracts potential clients but also bolsters your website’s SEO, making it more discoverable to those seeking your artistic expertise.
7. Affiliate Marketing
Use affiliate marketing to monetize your online presence. Promoting products/services and earning a commission for each sale can turn your interests and expertise into a revenue stream. Research carefully a niche that resonates with you, and create engaging content seamlessly integrating affiliate links. This approach not only delivers value to your audience but also enhances your potential for revenue through successful affiliate partnerships.
8. Remote IT Support
Consider offering IT services to businesses and individuals, if you have technical skills. To ensure visibility optimize your website with keywords related to IT services to make it easier for those in need to find and benefit from your expertise.
9. Online Tutoring Services
As the landscape of education evolves, online Tutoring Services have become a crucial resource. Leverage your expertise in a specific subject to offer online tutoring. Just optimize your website with relevant keywords to attract students seeking assistance. Provide valuable and you can establish yourself as a credible source in the ever-expanding online education niche.
10. Handmade Crafts and Artisanal Products
If you’re creatively inclined, you can turn your passion into a home-based business and fulfill your endeavor. Show your creations through an e-commerce platform. Optimize your product descriptions and website content with keywords to enhance visibility and attract buyers.
There is much more you can learn about how to start a home business. This article is a starting point. By using these steps, you can be well on your way to starting a profitable home-based business.
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How Long Should Your Blog Articles Be?
by Rahimah Sultan
Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.
You shouldn’t be overly concerned about word count when writing content. The quality is what really matters.
Due to recent algorithm updates, shorter articles are ranking better. But this is also related to changes in the way we consume content. The ideal length also changes significantly across industries.
Tech websites use fairly short articles that are commentaries on a product, technology development, or an event.
Fashion is another industry that uses short posts. These readers don’t care about the history of a trend or how garments are made. What you’re going to see are thousands of articles about which looks are hot and how to recreate them.
Job recruitment topics usually range from 900 – 1,000 words. Job hunters don’t have the time to read thousands of words. They want to find new employment quickly.
Food Bloggers can use around 1,200 words to cover an introduction and an in-depth recipe.
Finance, sales, and healthcare are some industries that still benefit from the comprehensiveness and depth of long-form content. As these industries cover fairly complex topics, it’s almost always necessary to go beyond 2,000 words in order to satisfy readers’ interest.
Retail, manufacturing, marketing, food, and travel use mid-length articles of 1,000 – 2,000 words to cover information. This remains the most common article length.
Keep your target audience in mind at all times, as you choose your blog topics and how much content to write for each. If you know their needs can be met with less than 1,000 words, don’t waste their time with fluff.
While doing research for this article, I came across this quote from Ryan Velez, freelance writer and editor:
Ideal blog length has always evolved over time. As a response to the wave of 750-word content, things expanded to be a lot more comprehensive, 2,500 words-plus. Now, with the wave of AI-generated content flooding the internet, word count doesn’t guarantee quality to the same degree. Combine that with the ‘TikTok Effect,’ and ideal content size is smaller now and quicker to get to the point. Think 1,500 to 2,000 words.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a long-term strategy used with the goal of building relationships with your target audience by methodically delivering high-quality, relevant content that educates and ultimately makes sales.
Long-Form Content vs. Short-Form
Web users are becoming smarter. Searches using long-tailed keywords increase daily. These users want specific answers to specific questions. So, your content strategy needs to match their increasing knowledge.
Creating content with a high word count allows the you to feel a sense of achievement you don’t get when writing 500-word articles. Marketers are feeling like they have to create long-form content to get a toehold in the SERPs.
But the times are changing. Users are falling in love with short-form content. It’s part of the reason U.S. adults spend up to an hour on TikTok.
Over 50 percent of business videos are less than two minutes long.
Combine these statistics with the fact that more and more adults believe attention spans are getting shorter, and it’s easy to see why consumers are placing greater emphasis and trust in concise articles that quickly answer their questions.
So, back to the question, how long should your blog articles be?
Two decades ago, the average article length was between 500-800 words. By the mid-2010s, articles were in excess of 2,000 words.
There are multiple reasons for this which include the way readers scan articles online and the psychology of equating length with quality.
Now, more concise articles are the trend. Although these aren’t quite as short as 800 words, they are short enough to quickly answer readers’ questions.
As you can see, longer is not necessarily better, neither is shorter. There is no one correct answer for blog article length. It’s dependent upon the industry. Your focus should be on quality not quantity or rankings.
Focus on top-quality content and promote it effectively rather than on how much to write.
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