Credit digital Bhattuta
I am back!
No I am not went anywhere technically, but I was not updated SRI since a week now! Was busy in some niche research as well as updating my other niche sites. While building a brand new blog; I came across the few things that I do every time when I build new blog and thought it is worth sharing with you if you are about to build a blog this will definitely going to help you.
Don’t Use Free Platform -
Free is powerful but we should know when to use it and when to avoid using free tools when it comes to blogging. Anyone who is serious about blogging and planning to make it either profession or to earn money should avoid free blogging platforms, only because it might look cheap or loose some authority of your blog. I use bluehost for all my website.
There are thousands of free blogging platform out there, few of them are
- WordPress.com
- Blogger.com
These both platform provides free hosting but came with ‘SUBDOMAIN’. Means blog might looks like www.yourblog.wordpress.com or www.yourblog.blogger.com So instead of using this platform buy private hosting as well as domain name. I am not against these free blogs, we can always use them to build backlinks and much more.
Use WordPress -
Don’t do the guess work, use wordpress. (Please don’t confuse between wordpress software and wordpress.com) WordPress blogging software is simple to use and SEO friendly. Almost all leading blogs in any industries are using wordpress. There are many hosting companies who allow easy and one click WordPress installation.
Don’t Use Default favicon of hosting company -
Favicon is another great way to provide brief idea about your blog. Always remember ‘A picture is equals to thousand words’. Favicon is an icon that appears in search box of any browser. Its an identity of your blog so always keep a good favicon.
Most of the new blogs have logo of there hosting providers and it wont look professional. To change favicon, go to ‘Public_html’ folder in your hosting account and choose the folder of blog that you need to change the favicon. Now delete old favicon.ico file and upload new favicon that you are created for your blog. To create a new favicon for your blog visit http://favicon-generator.org/
Do the basic clean up -
Once you installed the wordpress , do some quick clean up.
- Delete unwanted plugins and remove unnecessary widgets from sidebar.
- Change the original theme. Either select from free themes or purchase a brand new theme.
- Change permalinks – Most of the time wordpress permalinks are set to ‘Default’ which look like http://www.smartresidualincome.com/?p=123 Here the number 123 is dedicated to number of a specific post or page. Change it to the ‘Post name’. This will fetch the post name in url. It is supposed to be SEO friendly for brand new as well as old blog.
- Delete ‘Sample Page’ as well as ‘Hello World’ post and write your first blog post
Use Akismet -
Akismet is one of the best service to fight back comment spam. It really filter down the spam comment and make the life of blogger more easier and spam free 
They do have free as well as paid options. Here is a snap shot I have taken from my blog which shows akismet stats -
Using akismet to protect your blog from spammers is best move. Though now days many people using black hat techniques (employing real people ) to leave comments. Most of time such employed person does not add any value to blog and leave spam comment.
Don’t Use ‘Mystery Man’ -
When you set up fresh wordpress installation for brand new blog, every commentator who does not have ‘Gravatar’ profile pic will be shown as ‘Mystery man’. Go to settings – Discussion – Default avatar and select ‘Gravatar Logo’
Write First blog post -
Be creative; add valuable content as well as use images and videos if possible. Don’t just write ‘This is my first blog post’ it looks childish.
This was the basic Do’s and Don’ts that I learn over the period and applies for every brand new blog that being created. I might be missed few here which you can add below in comments. Your comments are truly appreciated.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
yeah, but there is one pro for using blogger.com or wordpress.com blog – your blog will get some momentum from strong main domain. At least I think it works like this
Yes Sieg, Blogger.com and wordpress.com are the best platform to have a blog and they have high pagerank, but it is always better own a domain for business blog.