The Role of Audience Personas in Driving Customer Engagement
It can be disheartening when you have a great product and the means to get the word out, but your customers aren’t responding. You may only have one-time customers who never come back, or maybe no one ever engages with your social media posts, or you seem to be attracting everyone but your ideal clientele.
Establishing reliable connections with customers is crucial if you want to create long-lasting bonds that will set you apart from competitors.
Need help engaging customers because you need to consider things from their perspective? How do you decide which methods of promotion to use? Do you know why people shop with you online? To succeed, you need an in-depth understanding of the customer. The use of audience personas is crucial in this regard.
Engaging customers can be demanding, but the bigger picture soon becomes apparent. Please take a seat, continue reading, and give some thought to who you want to do business with.
In other words, what is an audience persona?
Hubspot defines it as “Buyer personas are hypothetical characters you create based on market research to represent your ideal customer. They aid in concentrating efforts on promising leads, directing product improvement efforts toward satisfying specific clientele, and coordinating efforts across departments (including advertising, sales, and service).
Building audience personas will help you learn more about your current clientele and how to keep them as customers and attract new ones. Incorporating audience personas into your marketing, sales, brand, and product development efforts will help optimize every aspect of your business. You’ll learn if your target audience is more likely to be found on Twitter or TikTok and can accordingly allocate your resources. Even though all channels will remain vital, you’ll be able to better engage customers by identifying and catering to distinct subsets of your target demographic.
Forming Profiles of Potential Viewers
Many businesses cater to more than one type of target customer, but novices are best served by focusing on a narrower group initially.
Considerations for Questioning Your Target Market
Talking to your most devoted customers is the first step in developing a persona for your target demographic, and it would help if you attracted more clients like this. A thorough survey includes inquiring when respondents typically arise, how they stay abreast of current events, what they enjoy doing in their spare time, what they would use the product for, and why they make the purchase decision they do.
This data lets you learn a lot about your customers as unique people. With this knowledge, you can send them email campaigns at optimal times, highlight deals on products of interest, and keep their attention by providing content specific to their areas of interest. The best way to reach your target audience, keep their attention, and persuade them to buy from you is to ask them directly, and surveys and interviews are tried and proper methods of doing just that.
The information you glean from this study can be used to inform your “semi-fictional” character’s demographics, lifestyle choices, social media presence, obstacles, and desired outcomes. The point is to have a general idea of your ideal customer, so don’t worry too much about getting every detail right. You’ll get a sense of whether or not you’ve been reaching the right people with this persona.
With this wealth of data at your disposal, you will have a deep understanding of your customers and what truly motivates, interests, and stresses them out. For the development and implementation of effective strategies, this data is indispensable.
The Value of Creating Target Market Profiles
Ok, so you’ve done some customer interviews and developed a profile of your ideal client. We’re eager to talk about how you can use this to bolster your relationship with clients.
You’ll have an improved understanding of your ideal customer’s journey with your company from discovery to advocacy, including their motivations for making a purchase, pain points, preferred methods of communication, service expectations, and social media habits. With this knowledge, businesses can address their customers as individuals and tailor their interactions with them to better suit their needs and preferences.
You will have the ability to produce content that is both relevant and engaging to your target audience. They’ll want more of this and will be more likely to tell their friends. If you know exactly where and when to find your target audience, you can better reach them with your marketing efforts.
By creating these fictional representations of your target demographic, you can better tailor future offerings to the needs of your most devoted customers. The secret to launching a successful new product!
Re-Evaluation
Keep in mind that everything changes, and so do people. It’s essential to keep your target audience’s personas updated as trends come and go and priorities shift. Long-term customers are easier to retain if your products evolve as their needs do. Revisiting and revising your audience’s personas can accomplish this with little effort.
Get in Touch with Our Experts in Customer Engagement
Our excellent strategy and experience design teams are here to help if you need assistance with audience persona development or insight into additional methods of boosting customer engagement. We work to define and develop various user personas for your brand by compiling information from research, focus groups, existing website analytics, and past user data. Personas are a great way to introduce your target audience’s wants, needs, and behaviors to the design process early on. Get in touch with us immediately so we can begin working together.
How and why SEO (search engine optimization) is effective
As an owner of a business, It is important to consider where your money and assets are allocated and then carefully select the most effective marketing strategies. Unfortunately, professional SEO (search engine optimization) services can be costly, and SEO-related work in-house is long and time-consuming. Therefore, you’re entitled to an obligation to consider what the truth is. Does SEO work? Is it worth it?
We’re here to inform you that it works, and when done correctly, SEO as a digital marketing strategy could yield significant gains for your company. But, SEO must be done effectively. Although an effective SEO will increase sales, effective SEO will yield no results, while poor SEO techniques could lead to penalties. This blog will explore the importance of using good SEO techniques, how they can help your business, and how professionals at SEO services function.
SEO Basics
Search engine optimization (often abbreviated as SEO) is a term that is often used to define SEO. It’s a broad term to describe digital marketing and strategies that improve a site’s ranking in search engines like Bing and Google. Search engines use bots to crawl the internet, collecting information from each site and putting them into an index. Then, an algorithm analyses every index page, using hundreds of ranking factors, before deciding the best place to display them on search engine result pages (SERPs). SEO strategies are designed to increase the likelihood that your website will be placed at the top of the search results and, thus, the chance that users will visit your website.
SEO is the method of improving specific aspects of your website’s on– or off-page aspects that affect your site’s visibility. The more optimized your site is, the higher it ranks in the results of searches. Using high-quality and modern methods, SEO can expose your company to thousands of potential customers searching for your products or services.
Why Do Businesses Invest in SEO?
For the importance of having a strong presence on the internet, there is nothing more crucial than having a site that ranks well in relevant search results. Based on Backlinko, the Google page’s top result is estimated to receive 31.7 percent of all clicks. However, only .63 percent of Google users click on hyperlinks shown on the second result page.
Consider how often you land on two pages of Google results. It should motivate you to increase your website’s ranking on Google’s search results. By using best practices for SEO, you will be able to attract more customers. Best SEO techniques, thousands of new visitors will visit your website, eventually, which will result in more customers and more revenues.
Does SEO Work?
The best SEO techniques work well to improve a site’s rank in search engines. However, it’s crucial to recognize that SEO is a constantly evolving practice. A well-established and accepted method that worked five years ago might be outdated because of how Google has modified its algorithm. This is often the cause of an incorrect belief that SEO needs to be fixed. If your SEO works, then you’re using outdated practices. You must use the most current SEO methods to get satisfying outcomes. If you’re trying to get results when you have prioritized SEO efforts, think about seeking expert SEO assistance.
Harmful SEO Practices
It is important to avoid bad SEO methods since they could result in your site being disregarded or even penalized during ranking in search results. In the worst case, your website may be removed completely from the search results. Beware of these SEO mistakes:
- Pages that do not have a source of content In the past, when it came to SEO, the word “quantity” meant more than quality. As a result, web admins created a plethora of pages on their sites using non-original content, such as the reuse of their content or even stealing content from other websites. It is now considered to be archaic. Nowadays, the primary goal of the content you provide to your website should be to provide comprehensive and useful information that addresses questions and solves visitors’ problems.
- Buying links: Having backlinks for your site can increase its credibility and significantly increase your search results rankings. However, getting these links rather than buying them is more beneficial. Sites like Google are now equipped with systems that ignore or even penalize websites with many backlinks to spam sites.
- Keyword Stuffing, The correct implementation of keywords is crucial to the success of your SEO work. After hearing this, it isn’t easy to not include more keywords in the text on your site as you can. However, it’s important to know that Google has methods to spot inconspicuous, unfriendly website content. In SEO, your user’s experience will always be paramount. If you are overstuffed through keywords, the website’s text may become confusing and difficult to access or even nonsensical. It is essential to remember that people will be browsing your site, and Google evaluates pages that provide the most value for users. Keywords are important if employed correctly. However, overuse of them can result in being disregarded or even penalized.
Best SEO Practices Get Great Results
Although SEO can be time-consuming, costly, and complicated, It is important to remember how important it is for your company. An up-to-date site with efficient SEO strategies can benefit from an impressive increase in website visitors, which could be converted into clients. Americaneagle.com has been helping businesses improve their website performance with outstanding quality SEO, digital marketing, and professional solutions for many years. Get in touch with us to learn more about how SEO works; we can assist your company in achieving success through a range of tried and tested techniques for optimizing search engines.
The Most Common Errors Made by Small Business Owners When Engaging in Digital Marketing
Small business owners need to know that digital advertising is just as good as traditional advertising and is a great way to reach a larger market.
One of the biggest errors entrepreneurs make when it comes to digital marketing involves underestimating the volume that is required to make an impression online. Many think that all they have to do is create websites or social media accounts, and orders will begin to flow in.
We’ll discuss five common mistakes business owners make in digital marketing.
1. The wrong target audience is being addressed.
It’s great to advertise to a wide range of people to increase exposure, but it’s not productive to advertise to everyone. Be aware that more does not necessarily make a difference, particularly when you’re communicating to an unqualified audience. It is important to know what your audience wants and to send them messages they will like.
2. Chasing is not appealing.
Another mistake that small businesses make is to constantly pursue their customers by pushing products or services on them. When you chase after your customers, you push them away by being too eager. Successful marketers design systems designed to inform and draw attention.
This is where inbound marketing comes into play. According to Wikipedia
Inbound marketing is a good way to get people interested in your products and services by using social media, advertising, search engine optimization, branding, and content marketing.
3. Indulging critics
One way to demonstrate the highest level of trustworthiness for your brand is to respond to online complaints promptly and in a timely manner. Your brand must view any complaints as an opportunity to make improvements and improve. Customers may consider the removal of negative feedback as a way to hide grave flaws in the customer experience.
4. There is no budget for marketing in digital form.
A small amount of money spent on social networks or Google advertising will increase the number of visitors to your website or place. Digital marketing allows small-scale businesses to compete against larger companies with a smaller budget for advertising. If managed properly, they can have the ability to pinpoint exactly what they buy as well as how they spend their money.
5. Failing to track results
Digital marketing campaigns are unsuccessful if they aren’t monitored properly. Monitoring the results of your digital marketing is an important step in determining the success of your strategy.
Conclusion
If you are a small business, marketing your business online can be stressful and overwhelming. If you can avoid these mistakes, your efforts will be more effective.
Please contact us if you require assistance or want to improve your digital marketing strategy. We’ll be glad to help.
Do you have any questions or concerns about the management of social media? Feel free to post a comment below.
Beginners Tips To Use Graphic Design To Create Effective Marketing Materials
In this post, I’ll discuss what to consider before creating marketing materials using graphic design.
Like many entrepreneurs, you’re likely to look for ways to boost your marketing campaigns constantly. Unfortunately, if you’re as many entrepreneurs, you only have a little time to spend on it. Graphic design is where it is a crucial component. Graphic design can assist you in creating marketing materials that can reach many more people.
Utilize distinctive graphic designs to deconstruct your competitors
If you design marketing material, you must make it accessible and distinctive. Unique graphics draw attention to people and can increase the visibility of your business. Do not use a generic design. Always use the highest-quality, unique design.
To create effective marketing materials, break up the text and make it more readable.
One of the best ways to employ graphic design in creating efficient marketing materials is to use visual elements to break the text into smaller pieces making it more easily read. This is particularly important when your text is long or long. It is essential to do this since your prospective customer will want the same from your company. You need to comprehend your product to your customers so that it is worthwhile to offer this. Therefore, you must focus on putting the most easily understandable text in your marketing documents. Here are a few examples of this from Handcraft Logo
Utilize images to create visual appeal
One of the most important things you could do when employing graphic design to design successful marketing materials is to use graphics that are visually appealing. Visual appeal is a way to draw your prospective customers. This will help you stand out from your competitors and attract more customers. Today, people prefer appealing designs. Therefore, the more visual appeal you incorporate into your marketing materials, the greater chance you’ll get positive responses from potential clients. This is why it’s the most crucial element you must consider.
Make use of graphics to emphasize the essential aspects.
What are you planning to convey to your customers? One of the most effective methods of graphic design in creating successful marketing materials is to employ images to highlight key aspects. This will help you clarify your main messages to make them easier for customers to be understood. When you design an easy-to-use marketing piece, make sure you make the most critical points to increase your customers’ attention more easily.
Make use of images to create an atmosphere of urgency.
The best method to utilize graphic design in creating successful marketing materials is to employ graphic designs to make the impression of urgency. This can encourage your clients to act right now. Think about a sense of urgency in your message, and you will be able to receive positive feedback from your customers.
Conclusion
First, graphics must be designed to be attractive and straightforward to comprehend. That means your pictures need to be simple but also efficient. In addition, you should be aware of the group you’re aiming to reach. For example, if you’re targeting a younger crowd, it’s possible to use bright, exciting images. On the other hand, if you’re trying to reach an older audience, you might choose to go with more muted colors and more accurate designs.
The other thing you should remember when making graphics is to make them clear and easy to understand. This will enable your audience to comprehend what you’re trying to say quickly. Also, make sure you use headings and subheadings to make it easier for your readers to follow your message.
Hire Us for your Graphic Design.
Social Media For Your Small Business and Choosing the Right Platform
Why social media marketing is important?
As we know that social media is a very powerful tool, especially when it comes to brand awareness, aside from promoting your brand it helps in creating relationships with customers. Social media can help you meet several business goals such as:
– Increases awareness of the organization/brand: You may have seen other brands especially the ones you follow share their products/services on social platforms. By sharing the contents of your brand you make it easier for people to find the products and services you offer.
-Increases your sales: attracting and creating awareness of your brand through social media will definitely generate successful leads.
-It offers great feedback to customers: social media provides a vital role in marketing and creating relationships with customers as it gives you more valuable insight into customer’s behavior and interest.
-Keeps cost down: posting on social media is free, eventually you may want to expand your followers who are interested in your services and make more sales. These social media platforms offer paid adverts, there are no limits to spending on paid adverts – it all depends on your budget.
– Increases traffic to your website: for brands who go beyond just sharing content on social media and have their website listed on their social media pages/profiles, this also lets you get traffic sent to your website as your followers tend to visit your website when you share content from your social media that contains a link to your website. (Very good for bloggers).
-Improves search engine ranking: though social media do not have a direct impact on ranking. It can have a significant impact on search engines such as Google and Bing, the more you share content and engage with your customers the more SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking will be and also helps you by providing better and richer content on your social media.
other importance includes:
– Greater favorable perceptions of your brand.
– Identification of new product or service opportunities.
– Able to develop targeted marketing activities for your brand.
– Identification of positive and negative comments to help you boost your relationship with customers and deliver rich content.
How do I choose the best social media platform for my brand?
Choosing the right social media platform/channel depends on the nature of your brand’s product/services or content you provide. If your brand is focused on consumer products or information, then Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram would be a good platform for you to choose.
If your passion is writing business-oriented or professional topics, then a platform like LinkedIn would be suitable for this, as this platform has the ability to reach a more B2B-oriented audience.
There are other platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and YouTube which are extremely visual. The choice is yours depending on your goals – for example, brand-building is something that would work well with a visual-oriented platform.
The benefits of each social media platform
As totally inclined creatures we are, we have embraced technology that connects us with one another. There are over 200+ social media platforms increasing numbers of users who signup and use these social media platforms. However, a few of them stand out based on their popularity and the number of active users on these social media platforms. The number has exceeded more than 2billion within just five years while they weren’t even a billion back in 2010.
-Facebook: Worldwide use of Facebook exceeds 1 billion people. This is larger than the population of many nations. More than 50% of active users log on every day. Over 2 billion posts are liked and commented on each day and 250 million photos uploaded daily by these active users. Facebook is also available in 70 languages. You don’t have to put in much thought or it’s a no-brainer that a business should have Facebook for its social media presence with this large audience of users. Introducing them with products update or any business changes and setup stores and offers. Users of this platform are between 18 – 49 upward.
-Twitter: keeping an eye on competitors marketing efforts is a great thing Twitter can offer. You can follow this competitor or search them to see what they’re posting, their retweets, and comments. It is also,o a free way to monitor conversations happening about your business, likes and dislikes all kind of ideas to help your improve and be successful. Users of this platform are also between 18 – 49 upward.
-Instagram: This platform’s advantage over others is its all visuals. It is the second most accessed besides facebook which is owned by the same company. Over 1billion active users and over 400 million Instagram users update. It offers users some great visual updates, like “Instagram stories” which are visible for 24hrs (Very great for promotion and announcement. Nearly 50% of Instagram users are between 18 – 44.
-Pinterest: This platform also is visuals, it connects people with interest, cooking, tailoring, housing, photography, etc. Businesses can promote and explore their interests by allowing them to save pins on virtual bulleting boards. It is also the only platform currently that supports visual search. Users of this platform are between the age of 18 – 50.
Things to bear in mind when running your business on social media and be successful
Consistency and valuable content: content needs to be creative, original, controversial, trend-setting to effectively engage your audience. With so many people competing for your customer’s attention if you don’t provide great value they will quickly see out others that do.
Engage and build relationships: the most important thing about social media marketing is to engage and build relationships. Online relationships on social media are actually no different than the offline relationships we are used to building. With regard to social media pages for businesses, many people mistakenly believe that if
someone likes your page and becomes a fan then every update you post to your page will appear in their home feed. This used to be the case, however, unlike Facebook and some others it now uses an algorithm called Edge Ranking which determines who gets to see what and by whom. Basically, it rewards engagement.
Be active: show activeness on your online presence for your brand, do not update today and give like 4days or more for the next update. It will be advisable you post 3 or more posts per day. Get collective ideas from other well-known brands or your customer’s feedbacks to keep your followers engaged and active.
[Tweet “Note that, a strong social media presence helps you build brand loyalty and credibility.”]Use hashtags for your posts: Hashtags are used by social media platforms to gain high visibility of their posts, it allows users who are not following you but share the same interests to find you or the services you offer. They (hashtags) are form of user-generated tagging that enables cross-referencing of content sharing a subject or them.
WordPress Themes: Getting the Right Design and Layout for Your Blog
The first thing your WordPress blog front end needs is a face (design and layout). You want to create an environment that is both eye-catching and practical. In the long run, you want your visitors to easily find information on your blog. You don’t want visitors to be discouraged by the colors you choose or the non-intuitive and unpractical way in which information is displayed. Your design can cause instant distrust of your blog or instant acceptance.
Start your search for a theme as soon as your WordPress platform is installed. The look and feel of your blog relies on the theme you choose. Your readers will first notice the overall appearance of the blog, before even taking a look at the content. Choose a theme that looks great, but also works for your unique content needs. The default theme that comes with your WordPress blog installed is Twenty Sixteen — while it’s a good starter theme, you’ll want to choose a theme that is more unique to your blog and compatible with your niche.
Here’s a quick checklist for choosing your theme by searching within blog dashboard:
- Read the description: Most themes come with a short description of features and functionality. By reading it, you should have a rough idea if the theme matches your needs and how customizable it is.
- Check the ratings: Popular themes will have star ratings that are visible in the preview and under
theme details. They should give you a clear idea how good the theme is. - Preview the theme: Preview the theme to get an idea of the overall look and layout.
- Check for responsiveness: Aim for a responsive design that will work on desktop browsers and mobile devices. This is recommended by Google.
If you find a theme that takes your breath away, cool down. Once you install a theme you like, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t look quite right. Your theme is just a skeleton of your blog.To make it appealing, you’ll have to fill in content (text, photos, videos, etc.). Earlier, we showed you how to add content to your blog.
Free, premium, and custom themes
For many visionary novice bloggers, the world is not enough. The stash of free themes (more than two thousand themes are available on wordpress.org) does not satisfy their particular desire for look and feel. There are two other options you can take a look at, premium and custom themes. But they incur a cost, sometimes a tiny one, at other times a huge amount.
For the most part, it’s hard to choose the right theme from such a wide variety. At Teknize, we’re doing our best to make that process easier for you.
Premium themes are created by both single developers and dedicated showcase websites. Top sources for premium themes that are worth checking include ThemeForest, StudioPress, Elegant Themes, ThemeIsle, ThemeGrill and Colorlib. The price range for a single-use licenses ranges from $30 to $500, depending on which premium theme you choose.
Custom themes are created by an individual developer (coder and designer, or agency) who will either customize an existing theme or create a brand new theme for you. While coming with clear-cut advantages, they are not the ideal choice for beginner bloggers due to their high cost. Prices to customize a theme range from $500 to $2,000, depending on the features you want.
Examples of good free and premium themes
Based on our experience, we recommend the following free and premium themes for new bloggers.
Free themes
Poseidon is a theme that’s near-perfect for showcasing your content, especially if you also use crisp and captivating visuals. It offers a full screen image carousel, offset by plenty of negative space.
Hemingway features a two-column design that’s well-suited for blog sites. It is clean, with a simple layout that draws attention to your content over everything else. This theme is perfect for many types of blogging sites, simply because it’s clean enough for simple blogs, but also extensible for more complex sites.
When it comes to personal blogs – and a bunch of great content about food, travel, fashion, or other lifestyle topics – Writee is worth your consideration. The charm of this theme is that its design belies its ease of use. In other words, Writee looks great, and lets you get cracking on creating content – ideal for new site owners.
Premium themes
You can find different premium themes online from the resources mentioned earlier. We recommend you to check the themes series from Themeforest. Their services and support are top notch and all of their themes are highly customizable. Here are three themes that are suited for the blog.
Newspaper is a WordPress theme that lets you write articles and blog posts with ease. We offer great support and friendly help!
Create a great news website with our newspaper WordPress template. This bestseller theme is perfect for blogging and excellent for an e-commerce, shop, store, WooCommerce, news, newspaper, magazine, publishing or review site. It supports videos from YouTube. AMP and mobile ready. GDPR compliant, the theme is fast, simple, and easy to use for cryptocurrency, fashion, food, lifestyle, modern, personal, travel, luxury, viral, minimal, minimalist projects, web development, and more websites.
Jannah has Content Marketing covered with fresh responsive designs, amazing new features, complete 1-click website demos & lifetime free updates.
Jannah has a fully responsive design that not only adapts to all of today’s modern devices but responds to the most up to date mobile devices for swipeable content. It also appears to think for you with intelligent menu features that adapt to the user’s device to ensure they have the best, most seamless experience possible while consuming your content.
Newsmag is a modern WordPress theme that lets you write articles and blog posts with ease. We offer great support and friendly help! The Newsmag template is excellent for a news, newspaper, magazine, publishing or review site. It also supports videos from YouTube and features a rating system. It uses the best clean SEO practices, and on top of that, it’s fast, simple, and easy to use. In addition, News mag supports responsive Google Ads and AdSense.
If you still find it hard to set up your blog and want Teknize to setup your blog, please Contac Us.
- Published in Posts, Web Design
Learn How to Use WordPress in 2022: The Beginner’s Guide
In this guide, we will take a closer look at managing your WordPress blog. You will learn how to customize your blog, make design and layout changes, create your first post or page and much more.
The WordPress front and back ends:
The WordPress platform consists of two areas: your blog’s front end and back end. The front end is what your visitors will see when they come to your blog. Many of the tasks performed in the back end will be visible on the front end, such as theme customizations, plugin functionality enhancements and content publication. There are also actions that can be performed by you and your visitors directly from the front end of the blog, including commenting and social sharing..
The Backend
The back end, known as the WordPress dashboard, allows you to fully manage your blog’s content, community, functionality and design. It is accessible only by users who you designate and assign an account on your blog. In order to access your WordPress dashboard, you need to type: example.com/wp-admin in the address bar of your browser and log in using your WordPress username and password.
Navigating the dashboard.
The Dashboard is the center of blog administration. It consists of three main parts: left side menu, top toolbar and middle section.
The left-hand column of your WordPress dashboard is where you’ll find all of your admin options and where most of your creative effort will be focused. This column includes menu options for each of the following functional areas.
Updates
Find updates to the WordPress platform along with plugins and themes you have installed.
WordPress, like any popular CMS, releases both minor and major updates to their platform in order to introduce new features, fix bugs and increase security. In the past, you would be given the choice to update to the latest version of WordPress through your Dashboard using a oneclick install process or by downloading the latest version and installing it yourself.
For anyone who has WordPress 4.3 or above, updates to the core WordPress platform are automatically installed on your website like you see on our website, we have the latest WordPress version installed. You are still responsible for updating your plugins and themes when updates become available. If you don’t want WordPress to automatically update the core of their platform, you can find directions on how to configure automatic updates in the WordPress Codex.
Posts
The Posts menu allows you to control the new content you add to your blog. Blog posts are published on your blog in descending order (newest first). In the Posts menu, you will find the following options: View All posts (blog content), add a new post, view and create categories, view and create tags.
- All Posts: A list all of your posts in the dashboard. You can use the listing to quickly edit single or multiple post categories, tags, status, author and ability to comment.
- Add New: This is where you go to add a new post to your blog.
- Categories: View all of the categories your posts are listed under, edit them and add new categories.
- Tags: View all of the keywords your posts are tagged with, edit them and add new..
Media
View your media library (images, documents, audio and other file uploads) and upload new files. In the Media menu, you will find the following options: Library & Add New.
- Library: View all of the media uploaded to your WordPress blog.
- Add New: Add new media to your Word-Press blog.
Pages
Pages provide static content or information to the readers. Standard pages that WordPress bloggers use include: About, Contact, Advertise, Products, Services and Resources. The following options are available on the Pages menu, you will find the following options: All Pages and Add New.
- All Pages: A list of all pages in the dashboard. You can use the listing to quickly edit single or multiple pages’ status, author, parent, template and ability to comment.
- Add New: Add new pages to your blog. You can create an individual page, or create a page as a subpage of another by selecting a parent page on the right side of the screen.
Posts vs. Pages
Your blog content will be displayed in pages and posts. While they have similarities, they serve different purposes and have different behaviors.
They both have the following in common:
- A title/headline and specific content.
- Meta information (author, date of publishing, etc.).
- They can be added, deleted, updated or edited.
- They will be available for everyone or only a limited number of users based on your choice of settings.
- They can contain anything from plain text to media-rich content (video, audio, photo, links, etc.).
- They can be altered or extended via plugins.
- What sets posts and pages apart:
- Pages are generally not a part of your main blog’s content. For example, if you have a travel blog, you would write posts about your latest travels. You would reserve pages for things that relate to you and the blog, such as a page with information about you or a page with a contact form to contact you.
- Posts are part of your main blog’s content. They will show up as new entries within your blog and your RSS feed (Rich Site Summary is a web feed used to distribute information from your blog to subscribers.) Pages will only be displayed when you link to them directly and never within your RSS feed.
Comments
Comment manager where you will approve or delete new comments on blog posts and pages. The Comments feature is the best way to manage reader interaction. It allows readers to add comments on the topic, ask questions and provide feedback. It allows you and your readers to stay engaged with the community and interact around your specific niche market. Both blog posts and pages can accept comments. Most WordPress themes come equipped with comment layout functionality. However, it is up to you to engage with your readers and encourage them to leave comments on your blog. Check for new comments regularly. Approve them promptly and reply to them as needed.
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Appearance
This menu is where most of the activity of changing the design and layout of your blog will take place. Here you can search for and install new themes and make additional customizations to your blog’s header image, colors and background.
In the Appearance menu, you will find the following submenus below: (We’re presenting options that are commonly available. Keep in mind that options will vary, depending on the theme you choose.)
- Themes — This is where you can search for themes on the WordPress network or install themes you have downloaded from elsewhere. We will talk about theme selection momentarily.
- Customize — Depending on the theme you have chosen, you will be able to use the Customize section to make changes to the theme’s design in a visual editor. Things that can be customized include: Title and Tagline, Color, Background Image, Static Front Page, and Featured Content.
- Widgets — Widgets are boxes you can add to various areas of your WordPress blog. Depending on the theme you have chosen, this can include the homepage, header, sidebar and footer. Adding widgets is a simple task, and it works using a drag & drop building experience. Widgets can showcase a social media links, a search bar, subscription links, about text for the blog, most recent posts, most recent comments, links to other blogs you like, and more.
- Menus — Depending on the theme you have chosen, you can create one or more menus that will appear horizontally in your header.
- Header — Depending on the theme you have chosen, you can upload a graphic at a specific size (determined by your theme) which will be displayed at the top of your blog.
- Background — Depending on the theme you have chosen, you can change background colors or upload your own background image.
- Theme Editor — The editor is for advanced users and involves code knowledge. It gives you the option of editing theme code for specific functionality and design changes. Because visitors will be able to immediately see any changes that you save in your theme’s code, it’s usually safer to edit copies of your files offline, test, and upload your changes when they are verified. If you are going to use editor, always make sure you backup current version of your blog before editing your files. If there is a problem, you can always upload a previous version of the code to fix it..
Plugins
Plugins are bundled pieces of code which affect the way your blog looks or feels. They can add new functionality to your blog, extend your theme’s capabilities, and customize your blog as a whole or in part. While a majority of plugins are free, there are plenty that are offered for a fee based on their unique functionality.
- Installed Plugins: this shows you plugins you have already installed.
- Add New: click here if you want to add new plugins.
- Plugin Editor: you can make direct edits to your plugin here, but it is best that you don’t unless you know what you’re doing. Editing your plugin code may introduce conflicts that break your site.
Users
This section allows you to add new users to your WordPress blog, customize your own user profile, and edit users you have added to your WordPress blog.
- All Users: shows you all who are registered on your WordPress website. You can see the role that has been assigned to each user as well as other info, such as the number of posts they have published on your site.
- Add New: this option lets you add a new user and also assign a role to them
- Profile: this displays personalization options for the currently logged in user. Here, you can customize your wp admin dashboard to look different for you. Let’s say you are tired of the blue WordPress dashboard. You can change the default WordPress color scheme to a different set of colors. You can also personalize the look and feel of WordPress editors, and make changes to your profile details.
You can assign each user the following roles: analyzing your website traffic.
- Administrator: Able to perform all actions on the blog. This should be reserved for you as the site owner and only those you trust highly with your blog as they have the power to do anything, including lock you out of your own site.
- Editor: Access and edit all posts, pages, comments, categories, tags, and links.
- Author: Publish and edit articles, posts, and upload media.
- Contributor: Write and edit own posts, but is not able to publish without consent.
- Subscriber: Can only read and comment on posts or pages.
Tools
Tools to import and export content to and from your WordPress blog.
Settings
Edit general blog settings, writing settings, reading settings, discussion (comment) settings, media settings and permalinks (URL formatting for your blog).
In addition to the general menu items in the left hand column mentioned above, you’ll also find menu options for plugins you have installed. Depending on the plugin’s purpose and coding, it’s settings can be added to any standard menu (posts, pages, comments, appearance, plugins, users, tools or settings) or as a new menu item anywhere in the left-hand column.
- Published in Posts, Web Design
How to Start a Blog in 2022 and Earn Online: The Beginner’s Guide
Have you ever asked yourself how to start a blog?
You may have been hearing that starting a blog is so complicated but we’re here to convince you that creating a successful blog is not as daunting as many people think.
In fact, by following the step-by-step instructions in this guide, you will be able to set up and make your own blog, avoiding pitfalls and missteps that hinder some novices (no technical skills needed).
Five easy steps to starting a blog:
| 1. Choose a blogging platform |
| 2. Pick a domain name |
| 3. Get a web hosting account |
| 4. Install blogging software and set up a blog |
| 5. Select a blog design and layout |
At this stage, you’ll need to determine the type of blog management platform/tool you want to use. We recommend that you set up your blog on one of the self-hosted platforms. But before you make the decision, let us describe each option.
Administration Abilities
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When it comes to starting your blog you have the following options: free, freemium, and self-hosted (recommended) platforms.
Free platforms
For many new bloggers, the availability of free blogging platforms such as Blogger or Tumblr is tempting. Of course, there is one big benefit, it’s free. But you need to understand that having a blog name in this form — yourname.blogspot.com or yourname.tumblr.com, is the sign of an inexperienced beginner who likely won’t be taken seriously.
By keeping your blog on a free platform, you let the platform own your name. You’ll be subject to their rules and restrictions, they may limit or prohibit ads on your blog, or they may even place their own ads on your blog. If you’re serious about blogging, you’ll want to move away from these options: free, freemium, and self-hosted (recommended) platforms.
Free platforms
Freemium means you’ll have a trial period before you have to start paying (costs vary from $5 to $30 per month). Several platforms are available. One of the most popular is TypePad. This platform focuses on ease of use for writing, but customization options are limited and it lacks certain features of value to bloggers.
By default, your TypePad blog name will look like this: yourname.typepad.com. It’s not always the best option if you’re trying to build the name and brand for your blog. However, you could point your own domain (purchased through any domain registrar) to a TypePad blog.
Self-hosted platforms
Self-hosted platforms allow you to run a blog on your own domain. Aside from following your domain registrar and web hosting company’s rules, you’re fully in charge of your blog and its contents.
One of the best and most well-known self-hosted content management systems (CMS) is WordPress.org, powering 25.4% of all websites in the world and responsible for over 76.5 million blogs, which is recommended by 99% of the blogging experts we’ve surveyed.
You have a number of choices when it comes to a self-hosted blog system (also called Content Management System or CMS). The most popular is WordPress.org. This blog option is called self-hosted because you will use your own web hosting space and name for your blog. It normally costs $4 to $8 per month for the web space (hosting account), depending on the company you choose, and $12 to $15 per year for the name (domain). The actual CMS is usually open-source and free.
Although we mentioned some free blog-hosting options, the best course of action is to own your blog, especially if you will be using your own copyrighted material (articles, drawings, photos, etc.). Pay a small amount of money every month. If you plan to sell products, services, music, or anything else via your blog, then paid to host is the best way to go. Many hosting providers can help you maintain an ecommerce blog. If you are not sure where to go, please contact us.
To get your new self-hosted blog started, you need to decide on two important things: a domain name and a web hosting provider.
Your domain name will be the name by which you will be known online, no matter what niche you choose. It’s the unique address of your blog on the Internet. Your domain will be yours as long as
you continue paying the annual fee ($10 to $15 for a .com domain).
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Users who know your domain/URL (Uniform Resource Locator) can simply type it into their browser’s address bar. Others will be able to discover your blog through search engines such as Google and Bing.
Your domain name may be the highly popular “dot com” or it may be country or niche-specific. From .ng (Nigeria) to .com.ng and from .guru (yes, for life coaches) to .sport (for sports-related domains), these top-level domains (TLDs) are added to any domain name in order to point to their location. The general rule is to go for a “dot com” domain, but some of the other extensions can work.
After choosing a domain name, selecting reliable hosting services will be one of the most important decisions you make. To a great extent, the functionality and performance of your blog will depend on your hosting provider. The host makes sure your blog is available 24/7 to potential readers and it’s where your files are stored online.
Most hosting companies also offer domain registration services. Some people keep their domain name with the registrar company, separate from the hosting account. We recommend keeping it all under your hosting account for hassle-free management and maintenance.
The wrong web host can cause many problems with your blog. Just imagine choosing a mobile company that has no reception. Your web host is a major piece of the puzzle to maintaining a successful blog, therefore, it’s crucial that you choose a reliable provider. Want it done for you? Contact Us.
Install blogging software and set up a blog.
Now it’s time to get your domain name and web hosting account and create your new blog. Below you will find our recommended hosting provider. Also, if you get stuck, we included step-by-step instructions to help you with the process.
Our Top 10 best web hosting services (reviewed and compared).
| 1 | GoDaddy | Best beginner-friendly hosting |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Bluehost | Best hosting solution for WordPress |
| 3 | DreamHost | Best month-to-month plans |
| 4 | Hostinger | Cheapest web hosting plans |
| 5 | Whogohost | SME and reseller web hosting with WordPress and Joomla. |
| 6 | Gigalayer | Eco-friendly Web Hosting and Domain for Starters |
| 7 | Siteground | Excellent customer support |
| 8 | WebHostingHub | Affordable hosting service |
| 9 | GreenGeeks | Best eco-friendly hosting |
| 10 | Web4Africa | Local hosting in Nigeria at reasonable pricing. |
Depending on the hosting provider you should have your login details, email, and password that enable you to log in to your cPanel (control panel).
Step 1.
Once you’re logged in, you’re ready to install WordPress. Under the website section, you should be able to see a WordPress icon or section called Softaculous App Installer. Click on the WordPress icon.
Step 2.
Click Install now, it will take you to a short WordPress description, after which it will be required from you to check your domain and fill in other details.
Step 3.
After clicking Install Now you’ll be able to type in your username, site title, site description, and password, but you should be aware of the fact you can change either one of them later, other than your username.
Step 4.
Once you check and double-check every letter you have entered, click “Install” and the installation process will begin. Once your installation is complete, you will receive an email about your credentials and WordPress directory to your Admin Panel/Dashboard after which you can browse through various themes and templates in order to find the one according to your needs.
Select a blog design and layout.
After WordPress is installed, the first thing your blog needs is a face (design and layout). The design of your blog can be easily changed with the Themes. The default theme that comes with your WordPress blog installed is Twenty Sixteen — while it’s a good starter theme, you could select a theme that is more unique to your blog and compatible with your niche. Choose a theme that looks great, but also works for your unique content needs. Your readers will first notice the overall appearance of the blog, before even taking a look at the content
For premium responsive WordPress themes, visit Evanto WordPress themes.
Action steps
Once your installation is complete, you will receive an email about your credentials, after which you can browse through various themes and templates in order to find the one according to your needs.
- Read the description
Most themes come with a short description of features and functionality. By reading it, you should have a rough idea of the theme that matches your needs and how customizable it is. - Preview the theme
Preview the theme to get an idea of the overall look and layout. - Check the ratings
Popular themes will have star ratings that are visible in the preview and under theme details. They should give you a clear idea of how good the theme is. - Check for responsiveness
Aim for a responsive design that will work on desktop browsers and mobile devices. This is recommended by Google..
If you find a theme that takes your breath away, cool down. Once you install a theme you like, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t look quite right as you have previewed. Your theme is just a skeleton of your blog. To make it appealing, you’ll have to fill in content (text, photos, videos, etc.) Most of these themes will not include the default image as seen on the preview, you will have to do that yourself to make it look appealing.
Conclusions
Congratulations! Now you have your own domain name, hosting space and your blog is set up. Next, you will need to get familiar with the WordPress dashboard, learn how to make desired changes to your blog, start your content creation and promotion in order to become a successful blogger.
- Published in Posts