Spend Money Wisely to Build Your Blog
Dynamite Profits: Profit From Your Passions
This is a guest post by Aminul Islam Sajib. If you're interested in getting in front of the readers of Site Sketch 101, check out the guest posting guidelines here.
There was a time when people used to blog as a hobby. Well, there are still a number of people who blog just because they find it interesting and they enjoy doing it. But whenever an event or a process is done for money, it should be termed as business. And, if you think deeply, blogging for money is obviously a popular sort of business.
And so, blogging needs some money to be invested in it in order to make it larger and more profitable.
But this doesn’t mean investing an amount of money will bring immediate success to your blog; I mean, you can’t succeed overnight. You don’t fall asleep in your real-life business after investing some money. You work hard to setup and make your business profitable. For your blog, you have to be working hard as well. And all these efforts can bring success for your blogging business.
Now the question is where to spend money?
You have to be wise in spending/investing money. If you buy a premium blog template at the first step, it’s not going to benefit you. So, I won’t suggest you to buy a premium theme at the first step.
For start-up time, you can go with Free available themes. There are a plenty of gorgeous-looking themes out there which you can download and use at no cost. It’s advised to start with free theme.
Still confused where to invest money?
Okay, I’m going to solve it out. Invest some money buying a domain and hosting. These are the most important things each and every professional blog has and want-to-be professional blogs should have. Imagine of a Food store having no name and space. Would they be doing business without name and land? Nope. Instead, they would be wasting their time.
As well as you are doing if you have no name (Domain) and space (Hosting).
Buy a Domain and build your own brand
So, the first thing you should do is buy a domain for your blog. You need your own brand name. Without a unique domain name, your efforts are useless.
For example, what do you do to promote your blog posts and build strong backlinks? You work hard for Search Engine Optimization of your blog and to promote your blog posts. But all of them will be gone if you try to move.
Generally, you get a sub-domain for free and doing Search Engine Optimization for that sub-domain is comparable to harvesting paddy for your neighbor or somebody else. And that’s why you need a unique domain so that whatever you do for promoting your blog can only be for yourself.
Buy hosting a take it up a notch
After buying a domain name for your blog, the next thing you need to do is host it somewhere. There are a lot of free hosting services out there but none of them are dependable. Plus, a lot of limitations and restrictions will hamper your blogging business terribly.
Imagine you’re gardening for the purpose of selling flowers as a business but your doing it on the courtyard of your neighbor’s home. Is it good? I’m sure you don’t want to do that. It’s way better to have your own space for business. So, if you have a long term decision of blogging for money, then you should buy hosting from a trusted hosting service.
Of course, you can host your blog for free on blogger.com but I never recommend that. To me, working with blogger is not as easy as working in WordPress. If you want better result from your efforts in blogging, go WordPress.
Conclusion
Blogging is, in fact, fun. It’s truly easy to earn money from the blogs you own by being a little more serious and spending some money in it. And once you get used to in doing SEO and Socialization, you’ll find it fun too. But you must own a brand name (Domain) and a piece of land (Hosting) on the World Wide Web. It won’t be a loss for your business, trust me.
Your turn to talk
Have you bought a domain and a hosting for you blog? Had you used free hosting and free sub-domain before you bought them? Did you notice any improvement in your blog after hosting your blog on your self-hosting and having a unique domain name for it? Don’t you think the same will happen to everyone who is serious about blogging? Share your opinion with us.
Aminul Islam Sajib
Aminul Islam Sajib is the author and creator of Life with Technology, a blog about technology, blogging tips and the latest in social media news. Follow him on twitter @aisajib or Facebook. Aminul Islam Sajib has 2 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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42 Vibrant Comments
I would love to hear yours!
Eric Bannatyne said:
Something like this is exactly what I needed! So far, I have not spent any money on my blog, apart from hosting and a domain.
After getting hosting and a domain, where do you think it would be useful to spend some money? Advertising? Thanks!
My Latest Blog Post: 11 Quick and Easy Ways to Improve Site Usability
Nicholas Cardot said:
Eric Bannatyne –> If you are going to spend more money after that, I would say to buy an amazing theme for your blog. Get a cheap subscription at Elegant Themes for only $20 per year or grab an extremely cool theme from Woo Themes for around $70 per theme like I did.
David | ilcantone.com said:
Yes Nicholas, you’re right. A good design is money well invested. Lately I’ve been thinking aobut buying a new theme or hire a graphic designer for a professional design. But, if you got this fantastic theme for 70 bucks I think the wise move is to do just what you did.
Regards
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Nicholas Cardot said:
David | ilcantone.com –> Just don’t get in a rush and settle for something that is less than what you want. Look around and find something the really encapsulates the spirit of your blog. Make it look great.
emil said:
he , i just wrote a little story that deals with choosing a partner for you endeavors and it , somehow , offers an answer to where to spend money .
yeah , this is basically what you need to invest in at first … and i suggest that if you know a designer you trust you should talk to him and maybe make him a deal … after all … money is not the only thing people need .
and if you don’t know one … you could scout the forums a bit and see if you can find a young designer that has some talent but not enough experience . they tend to charge less because they need the portfolio .
as for hosting … well , it’s a pickle . it’s a very big pickle .
it’s gotten to a point where it’s rather hard to find a good host that it’s not a RESELLER .
but something around 15-20 bucks a month from one of the more well known hosts should be enough for the first couple of months .
it’s very important to keep your site up ( and fast ) for as much as possible in the first months .
My Latest Blog Post: what causes a high bounce rate ?
Nicholas Cardot said:
emil –> I agree. You definitely want to keep it up as much as possible in those early days. Hosting is one of the areas that I failed in when we first began. JustHost completely shut down my site twice and finally and took the site to a different hosting company.
InternetHowBlog said:
I had my own hosting and domain in the first place. However, i bought a premium theme after a while. You would be amazed how a premium theme would improve your blog.
I want to add one more thing. A mistake I used to make. I used to spend a lot of money on adverts, however not focusing on my sites. Basicly waste lots of money. Now, I focus on my blog more rather than spending lots of money on adverts.
My Latest Blog Post: 7 Ways to figuring out blogging success
Nicholas Cardot said:
InternetHowBlog –> That’s a great point. It’s not worth advertising your product if you don’t have something that people are going to be interested in. You have to have something that is worth advertising.
Huzzer Magazine said:
I think the problem is we do not systematically track any expense that we have made and monitor its performance.
Because of this, we will not able to know whether the ‘investment’ is worthwhile or not.
Sometimes, we fail to control our mind to make logical decision and let our ridiculous emotions and perceptions to take over.
It had happened to me for a couple of times and I believe the same thing goes to others.
What can I say is we have to learnt form our mistake.
Cheers!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Huzzer Magazine –> That’s somewhat true. People don’t always think about the logical results of their spending efforts from a strong business perspective. Often they are motivated by a certain naivety that drives them to think that what they spend their money on will be successful. It’s that same spirit that draws people into scams. We need to be driven by a well informed drive to succeed and our spending needs to thought out.
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach said:
I completely agree with you – your own name/domain site is critical for your branding success. Never be penny-wise and pound foolish.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach –> You’re right. It’s difficult to brand yourself when your renting your domain name under someone else’s domain. Get your own image to build.
Stefan said:
Just as many other has said already I agree with you first should buy a great domain and then find good hosting.
If I would spend any more money after that I would do so by buying a custom theme. There’s no need to buy advertising for a new blog. If you do not have a good method of turning your visitors into money I do not recommend spending money on advertising at all.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Stefan –> I agree. The theme is so incredibly important to keeping your visitors. You’ve got to have a great theme. And what would be the point of advertising if you don’t have a means for profiting or at least breaking even from it?
Web Hosting Blog said:
Purchasing a hosting account is a guaranteed that few basic certainties like stability and total control over your files, which is a way to become successful blogger.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Web Hosting Blog –> Absolutely right. I’ve seen a lot of accounts at blogspot get shut down for no apparent reason. That risk is much lower at your own site.
Arisu said:
Great advice! I think that the most difficult part is not decide to you need to think to long term when investing in something.
Domain and hosting should be our first expenses, but they´re the most important and need to be thought carefully. We don´t want to get trapped in a bad host nor in a domain that won´t fit if we decide to expand a little our topics.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Arisu –> Good points. You should definitely spend some time thinking about the domain you’re going to buy. Get the right one and it can massively catapult your branding strategy. Get the wrong one and people who do find you will think you are a spammer.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com said:
Great post. I agree wholeheartedly about spending on a domain and hosting first. I actually mentioned it in my WP for newbie guide article that I wrote last Friday.
I think it’s a mental barrier bloggers have to bust through. Spending money (even less than $100) is a tough thing to do when there’s no money coming in and only an audience of one. But they have to eventually realize that it’s an investment that absolutely must be made!
My Latest Blog Post: Visits vs. visitors: Who wins?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Gabe | freebloghelp.com –> If someone is blogging with the goal of making a profit, then they need to learn to invest in it. It’s nearly impossible to make money without investing some money. If they are blogging just as a hobby, of course, that’s different.
Surender Sharma said:
I am agree with the point of Free theme in the starting.Wonderful idea to start a blog with free theme.When blog grows we can switch free theme to premium theme like Thesis or any other.
Brand Brand brand…
Of course without name no identity..
My Latest Blog Post: How To Grow Your Blog Into Business
Nicholas Cardot said:
Surender Sharma –> I’ve seen a lot of people start with free themes and modify them to meet their needs. Then later as the site is growing they’ve upgraded to a nicer and more expensive theme.
Teen Blogger said:
Great Post.
I think bloggers who are begginning should just start slow and of course try to spend as less money possible, inless you’ve got money to spend. There’s always a possibility to get a unique theme created or outsource your work. But that’s only if you’ve got money to spend. Obviously domain and hosting comes first.
When you start seeing some money coming in then i think it’s time to start spending money to invest in your blog and try to expand it.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Teen Blogger –> Right now I try to spend the same amount on the site as what I bring in. I believe that by pouring 100% of it back out into the site that it will continue to grow in the amount that it brings in for me.
Joe Boots said:
I agree spend as little money as possible. Stay away from all the flashy expensive stuff. Build pages and build links. That’s it.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Joe Boots –> In the beginning, you don’t want to spend much money on anything. You want to keep it cheap while at the same time you still want to create a valuable blog that people want to read.
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews said:
Getting a domain and hosting is without a doubt the best place to start spending your money. When you pick a domain, you should really try to have already planned out where you are going. The last thing you want is a domain about football when you end up talking about basketball half the year.
I think after a domain and hosting, the next steps have to be awebber (or some other mailing client), a logo/branding if you don’t do it yourself, and a premium theme.
Various literature might be useful as well.. but be careful not to dump so much time in to reading about blogging that you forget to actually write.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews –> Those are all good points. I’ve read a lot of great things about Aweber and MailChimp and I think that eventually I will end up migrating my mailing list to one of those services.
Randall G. Leighton said:
Good article and a lot of great comments, as usual. I definitely agree that that it’s worth buying a premium theme. As Nicholas pointed out, elegantthemes.com is a real deal at $19.95.
If you want to save some money, and have high speed internet, consider hosting the site yourself in the beginning. If you can figure out how to buy a domain, set up hosting, FTP and install WordPress you can figure out how to install Apache, php and MySQL. It’s actually easier. Then, create an account with no-ip.com to get your domain name listed in the DNS for $25 per year.
Stefan, thanks for the advice on advertising.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Randall G. Leighton –> I’ve never heard that suggested. My only question would be do you think an average person’s internet connection would be fast enough to support good page load times?
Reza Winandar said:
Buying a domain is the first priority, and then space is the second and the last one is advertising cost. Google Adwords can be a good partner to bring fresh traffic to your blog. Just use it wisely or you will lose money for nothing.
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King Sidharth said:
Nice guest post dude! Love the examples.
Aminul Islam Sajib said:
Thanks everyone for reading this and leaving valuable comments which started a nice discussion on the importance of buying a hosting and a domain for a blog purposed of making money.
Chris said:
Wow! Great blog you have here. All of the posts are really informative and I’ve already learned so much from you. I’m really glad I found your blog. I’m relatively new to blogging and one day I’d like to have a Thesis theme and paid hosting but I feel to start out and get a feel for it I’m better off sticking with Blogger. If I can be successful and build my blog up to 1000 unique visitors per day, then I’ll take the next step and buy a theme and get a domain name and hosting. That’s my plan so far.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Chris –> How many daily visitors are you up to so far?
PSD Penguin said:
Great post… a lot of posts on your blog have helped me in getting my blog started… I started a photoshop blog about 2 weeks ago. I’ll keep following your lead and hopefully all goes well
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Yogesh Mankani said:
Sure you start your blog by getting personal domain and hosting. But you have to also differentiate from other blog sites , so branding is also important factor to stand you out.I think you have to spend some money on branding of your blog site also.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
What do you spend your money on to brand your site?
Yogesh Mankani said:
My view is to also spend some money on your identity,i.e, logo and website designing.
My Latest Blog Post: Is James Cameron Avatar curse or praise in Oscars
Nicholas Cardot said:
I agree with that. It makes sense. I spent $70 on the website theme that I use here at Site Sketch 101 and then I spent a lot of time customizing it and developing it into what we see today.
Jan Kasal said:
Excellent article and, more importantly, even better discussion. I am newbie, in the stage of developing my web site, so the discussion really broadens my horizon.
rabsin_d said:
Well, currently I’m still on the saving part…but I will definitely take these tips here…thanks
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