May 11, 2015 - Inscrib'd

Welcome to the world of blogging and entrepreneurship!

Our goal here at inscribd.com is to turn bloggers into entrepreneurs.

If you are planning to create a new blog or you’re already working on one, I recommend reading these key articles that explain the basics of blogging and what successful bloggers tend to do in the background. It’s not just about writing articles and there’s a lot more to it.

Reading through each of these selected articles in order should put you on the right path to blogging success.

1. Managing Expectations

I explain the right mindset bloggers should have when starting a new blog. When expectations are too far off course, disappointment is sure to follow. Hopefully this article will put you into the right frame of mind to ensure you keep blogging and don’t stop until you’re a success.

2. Choosing A Good Blog Name

Every successful blog is a brand unto itself and your blog should be no different. Even personal blogs should be branded and this article explains the importance of choosing a good name for your blog, which leads to reader loyalty and interest from advertisers.

3. Finding The Perfect Domain Name For Your Blog

Once you have chosen the perfect name for your blog, it’s time to put some money down and purchase a domain name. Actually, the two go hand-in-hand. Your chosen blog name needs to be available as a domain name. ie www.myblogname.com Getting this right is vital.

4. How To Choose The Best WordPress Theme

A huge majority of successful bloggers use WordPress as their blogging platform of choice. It’s a powerful content management system with thousands of plugins and themes to choose from. The theme you end up choosing could either give you lots of joy, or become a real pain in the neck. Choose wisely.

5. Using Images On Your Blog

Blogging is not just about the written word. The internet is a visual medium and likewise you should not ignore the power of images. As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. The use of images on your blog adds to the visual aesthetic and is highly recommended. However, using copyrighted photographs can get you into trouble, so read this article to discover where to get free images.

6. Crafting Awesome Blog Headlines And Titles

There are several reasons why the title of your blog posts are critically important and it’s not just a matter of being witty. A great title or headline will grab readers attention and also attract a better ranking in Google. There is a technique to crafting a great title and failing to do so will likely result in your work being ignored by readers.

7. Submitting Your New Website To Search Engines

Search Engines like Google are absolutely vital for your blogs success. While some blogs may get a lot of visitors from social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, it is far more likely that visitors would find your website through Google. This article explains how to make sure Google knows you exist.

8. The Importance Of Social Media

In this article we talk about Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and all manner of social media. Your blog should not exist in isolation and using social media to promote your blog can lead to far more visitors and reader loyalty than by ignoring these big sites.

9. Our Free eBook

I am giving away my eBook about Twitter to all Inscribd readers. Increasing your Twitter follower count is important for many reasons, not just to build an audience. Download the eBook for free.

10. Getting Other Websites To Link To Your Blog

Your blog shouldn’t be the lonely kid standing in the corner at their high school prom. You’ve got to mingle with the crowd and make yourself known. Getting other websites to link to your blog is very important for your blog’s success.

11. Understanding Advertising

Some of us bloggers dream of making lots of money online and more often than not, grasping the advertising terminology and concepts can be a bit tricky. Without knowing all the lingo, making any headway (and dollars) can seem daunting.

12. Earning Some Money With Google AdSense

Google Adsense is the go-to advertising network for new bloggers. Adsense has the lowest barrier to entry of all the advertising networks. It is highly likely that your very first dollar made online will come from Adsense.

13. Earning Some Money Through Affiliate Marketing

Another form of advertising is dubbed Affiliate Marketing. If you have not heard this term before, you must read this article. Affiliate Marketing can become *the* most lucrative aspect of your blog and I can’t overstate the importance of understanding the fundamentals.

I sincerely hope Inscribd is helpful to you and I welcome you to comment below and introduce yourself and your blog.

7 Tricks To Grabbing The Best Domain Names

Depending how you look at it, registering domain names can either be easy, or really, really difficult. Sure, technically it’s as simple as searching through GoDaddy but finding the perfect domain is the hard part.

If you’re hoping to find single-word domain names, such as any word in the dictionary, you’d be out of luck. Dictionary-word .com domains have all been snapped up. If you do happen to find one available, grab it quickly because it will be worth a fair bit of money.

It is possible to buy dictionary-word domains at auction, but unless you have very deep pockets, this may be out of reach. Instead, we can be creative and come up with our own unique domain names that represents our business or blog.

Choosing a brand name for your business or blog goes hand-in-hand with choosing domain names. We discussed this in Why Good Blog Names Unleash The Power Of Branding

Localized Domain Extensions Can Get You Out Of Trouble

There are many different types of domain name extensions available, such as .com, .net, .org, .au, .nz, .in and thousands of others. If your target audience is outside of the United States, for example a registered business in Australia can purchase a .com.au domain name. Some countries do have restrictions on who can register a domain name, so you’d need to check the policies.

Domain Extension Perception

There is a common perception amongst Internet users that .com is a ‘global’ domain, rather than one specifically for an American audience. If your target audience is USA or worldwide, try grab a .com domain name.

Other extensions such as .net, .org or even .info and .biz are all perceived to have lesser value than the .com. These extensions have their purpose, but if you are on a branding exercise and trying to establish your blog as being credible, I recommend sticking with .com

Finding Good Domain Names

Finding the best domain name is hard. A good domain is short! A good domain can be spoken out aloud easily, and read just as easily without ambiguity.

Your choice of domain may come down to the topics you will discuss in your blog. These are the keywords you may choose to include in your domain.

A word of caution though – creating a brand for your blog is less about keyword focus and more about uniqueness. Stand out from the crowd. Be creative when using keywords in your brand name – and likewise, your domain names.

Here are some tips to finding perfect domain names. You can see if any are available through GoDaddy

1. Remove a letter.

I’m sure you’ve heard of Flickr, Tumblr and Inscribd ðŸ˜‰ Remove a letter from keywords that end in ‘ed’ or ‘er’.

2. Add a suffix.

Try using a keyword/topic and add ‘er’, ‘ed’, ‘ing’, ‘y’, ‘ie’ to the end and see if that’s available. Also make keywords plural by adding ‘ies’ and ‘s’.

3. Replace ‘s’ with ‘z’.

Use this suggestion with care because it may come across as a bit tacky in some circumstances. It would work with some words, and not with others.

4. Add numbers.

Often, the easiest way to grab a keyword domain is to simply add a number at the start or end. Commonly, you’ll see 247 to mean 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sometimes though, a number’s meaning is not immediately obvious to visitors, so only do this if it fits within with your brand image.

5. Add abbreviations and titles.

Try add ‘HQ’ for headquarters. Add ‘Mr’ or ‘Mrs’ in front of personal name.

6. Clever word play with keywords.

Try joining two or three keywords together to form an entirely unique word. You’ll need to be clever though and make sure you can still say it out loud. Best to ask your social network what they think before you go ahead and register your funky new domain though.

7. Add a hyphen ‘-‘ between words.

This is a common trick for lazy domain hunters that I only recommend as a last resort. Adding a hyphen between keywords in your domain has much less benefit for SEO purposes than it used to. It also adds to the length of the domain, which is contrary to my recommendation of keeping them as short as possible.

Search for available domains through GoDaddy and let us know what you came up with!

Disclaimer: Links to 3rd party sites included within this article denoted with /go/ in the URL may result in commission being earned if you decide to make a purchase.

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