14 Crucial Setup Tips Guarantee a Better Blogging Experience

Setting up your WordPress blog the right way, the first time is important if you want to make it easy for your site visitors and search engines to find your content so you can make more money from your blog as well.

Here’s my best tips which should result in a better experience for all involved.

1. Choose a website domain name that’s both search engine friendly and which you can build a brand with
2. Use the correct custom permalink structure from the beginning – /%category%/%postname%/ located under Settings>Permalinks in your WordPress Dashboard.
3. Install WordPress using one click installation rather than manually installing WordPress – Saves heaps of time and frustration
4. Install a flexible theme for easy customization which offers helpful technical support 24/7 – This is a must when learning WordPress and will give you 24/7 access to some of the best WordPress minds on the net when you own a premium theme for wordpress
5. Install the best plugins – There over 12,000 free plugins but many can cause you problems. The most popular free plugins are the best free plugins and consider the best premium plugins as well.
6. Make your blog unique – Plain looking blogs which look like templates are not interesting and will not build your brand. Don’t get too abstract but do add your own unique look and feel.
7. Write posts which you are passionate about and are really interested in. Don’t pick a niche just to make money for your first blog.
8. Write unique content and make it easy to find. Google will not index content that’s like another post. Using Tags, category indexes and drop down menu’s help your readers find content easier. There’s only about 10 posts on the homepage which means your other content needs to be easily accessible.
9. Add an about page or author box so your blog comes alive. Static websites look dead compared to blogs. Readers like to know who’s behind the blog and are more interested in genuine experiences and real life stories rather than commercial sites sales copy.
10. Setup your list building service. I use mail chimp which is free for 12000 emails a month and free storage for 2000. Your subscriber list is a major asset if you want to make money online.
11. Analytics/stats plugins – Track your visitors and find out what’s popular on your blog and what they want to read. No point in writing content that’s not helpful or hard to understand.
12. Backup everything! DON’T Backup your databases ONLY. FULL backup is the only way to secure all your site. I’ve written truckloads on WordPress Backup so why take the risk?
13. Learn WordPress Seo – If you want to get traffic to your site you need to incorporate the basic SEO fundamentals into your blog design and when writing content. On page Keyword importance is crucial when writing your content.
14. Site Speed – Slow sites that take longer than 5 seconds to load will lose you visitors. Decrease page loading times to increase your sites speed and create a better blogging experience for all.

Setup WordPress the right way the first time and avoid problems down the track.