This is the Outline of My Review Blog
The aim of this site is to share information and give reviews of products and services that I find helpful so that others might also benefit from them. As an added benefit, if one of my visitors likes one of my reviews and decides to purchase that product or service, through my affiliate link, then I receive a commission.
I’m using this model of blog because, unlike most blogs that are focused around one specific topic or area expertise, this gives me the freedom to write about a wide array of subjects. Many people choose to focus their blog around a single topic and that is good if you have a lot of information to share on one particular topic.
For my blog design, I like to keep it simple and stick to a clean and traditional layout. This means, I like to use a theme with a header, a navigation bar, a 2 or 3 column body, and a footer. I find this kind of layout is familiar for people, easy to navigate, and is sufficient to get my message across. Depending on whether or not I’m using a premium theme, so the theme allows it, I will sometimes use a custom designed header image. For this blog, since I’m using the free version of the theme, I’m not allowed to upload a custom header image. I also like to insert at least one image per page or post that I create. Keep in mind, I keep my blog design pretty simple but when using WordPress site builder you can make your site look as complex as you desire. Later on, I’ll post some links to some professional looking blogs and websites built using the WordPress site builder.
What’s the Best Way to Build a Blog?
I create all of my blogs using the WordPress content management system (CMS), as it is by far the most powerful and popular tool for creating blogs. Visit my WordPress page to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress. For the appearance of this blog, I am using the free version of the theme called Customizr. This is a popular theme and the free version gives pretty good design options but I can always upgrade to the premium version for even more options. Some other popular premium themes are Divi, Avada, and Genesis theme. If you are looking to get maximum flexibility from your WordPress theme, I suggest you choose from one of those or other premium themes. I personally really like the Genesis theme and it is one of the most popular premium themes available. Be sure to read to the bottom of this page to learn about my free WordPress setup offer.
Reasons To Start a Blog
There are many different reasons to start your own blog or website but here are some of my personal reasons.
- It’s fun
Creating a blog allows you to be creative and build something that is unique to your personality. There are so many different WordPress theme, and plugin options available for your blog that you will have a good time experimenting with them all..
- It can be profitable
Who doesn’t like to make money while doing something they enjoy? I think that’s the goal for most people. Having a blog provides you with the perfect platform to promote products and services, either ones that you have created, or affiliate products, and earn a commission while doing so. I promote some affiliate products on this blog. Click here to learn more about affiliate marketing.
- It’s a great way to spread your ideas or work to the world
If you have ideas or work you are passionate about and want to promote to the world, having a blog is an ideal way to do that because instead of trying to explain yourself to everyone you want to share your message with you just give them your web address.
How to Promote Your Blog
Once you have your blog up and running, it will do you nor anybody else any good if they cannot see your blog. People have to be aware that your block exists in order for them to read it. Often times, this can be the biggest challenge for new bloggers. Below is a list of my favorite free promotion methods that have worked the best for me.
- Social Media
If you can find people on social media who would benefit from the information you’re sharing on your blog, then post a link to your review and tell them you think this might help them.
- Post your blog link in forum signature link
If you regularly visit any discussion forums, see if they allow signature links (the little taglines that show up every time someone makes a post or reply). If they do, make sure you leave a short description about your blog and a link.
- Offline/ Word of mouth
This will depend a lot on what your blog is about but if it is truly a helpful blog, you will find opportunities during your day to recommend people to your blog.
- YouTube
YouTube is my favorite free promotion method. I’ve made plenty of sales with the help of YouTube. You can either create your own videos targeting specific keywords and then link back to your blog or you can search for videos related to your blog topic and you can comment on those videos, leaving your blog address.
There are many other promotional methods out there as well but these should be enough to get you started.
If You Have an Idea for a Blog, I Have an Offer for You
Now that you can see the benefits of owning a blog, if you are interested in starting one but don’t know where to start, I have an offer for you. If you sign up for your web hosting with the same provider that I use, A2 web hosting, through my provided affiliate link, I will setup your blog for you.
I will install WordPress on your hosting provider and install the same free version of Optimizer theme that you see here. I will also install some of my favorite plugins to help your blog perform more optimally. Additionally, I will continue to answer any questions you have regarding your blog or affiliate marketing, in the future. Please keep in mind, this doesn’t mean I will be your personal web designer. I will get your blog framework up and running but after that you will have to add the content and customize the options in order to achieve the appearance you desire. I will also give you a free guide which will walk you through the customization steps of your WordPress blog. If you want to take advantage of this offer or have any other questions, you can contact me through the contact link at the top of this page.
If you are interested in this offer, there are two paid services you need to sign up for before I can start to setup your blog, they are domain registration and web hosting. Fortunately, both of these services are quite affordable. There are many different companies that offer these services and some of these companies offer both services. Many people, myself included, recommend that you use don’t use the same company for your domain registration and your web hosting. The reason for this, is that if for some reason your hosting company decides you are in violation of their terms of service (TOS), and decides to freeze your account, you can simply purchase web hosting from another company, migrate your files to the new host, and point your domain to your new host. If you have both your domain and hosting with the same company, they may decide to shut down your domain along with your hosting and then you will lose your website and all the hard work you put into it. For the record, this has never happened to me and it’s probably not a likely scenario but I do think it’s a good precaution to take. You never know if a jealous competitor may make up lies about you and turn in a complaint about your website.
Domain registration is the web address of your blog, so for this blog I had to register the name joerecommends.com. That cost me about $12 to register and $12 per year to renew. Different domain suffixes will affect the prices though, a .net might cost less than a .com but a .info will probably be cheaper than either two so you have to decide what you want. I personally like to stick with a .com or .net if I can because I think, in most peoples minds, those domains sound more reputable. I have all of my domains registered at Namecheap.com. I like them because they have good pricing, customer support, user interface, and a domain name search tool which makes it easy to see what domain names are available. If you’re going to take advantage of my blog creation service, I would like you to register your domain with Namecheap.com, in order to make the process go smoothly. Start by going there and use there search tool to see if your website name is available. If it isn’t, then you’ll have to be creative and change it up a bit until you find an available one.
Web hosting is the server which your website will be running on 24/7. Again, there are many different companies to choose from. For many years, I used the popular hosting company Hostgator, until my website got hacked and they did nothing to help me except offer me their $300 hacked website cleanup service. This made me question whether or not they may have had a hand in my site getting hacked so I quit using them. After researching different companies , I discovered A2 hosting. That is who I have been using for about 4 years now and I have been very happy with them. They have affordable pricing at $5 per month, fast speeds, good security features, and allows you to host multiple websites. There are other hosting services that offer better performance features but they will cost you up to $32 per month. If you are going to sign up for my free blog setup offer, go over to A2 hosting and sign up for the Swift shared hosting plan by clicking through this link A2hosting.
After you have signed up for these two services, contact me through the contact page on this site and I will get started on creating your blog. I will need about 5 days to setup your blog. Keep in mind, to complete this process I will need your username and password to your A2 and Namecheap accounts in order to perform the work. You can change these passwords once I’m done with the work. If you have any questions just send me a message through my contact page. Thank you.