How to Host Your WordPress Blog Yourself
One of the most difficult things for a first-time blogger is figuring out where to publish their content. There are so many options available to them, but finding the right platform can be tricky. Especially if you want your readers to discover your content organically rather than through paid advertising.
If you’re looking to host your WordPress blog yourself, there are a few things you should know.
Legal, Technical, And Financial Aspects
Before you start building out your blog, you should have all three of these in the back of your mind. It’s vital you’re aware of and prepared for the legal, financial, and technical aspects of operating a blog yourself rather than just outsourcing it to a third party.
You’re responsible for dealing with all of these aspects and more. From installing and maintaining the appropriate legal software to figuring out where to securely store your blog’s content, you must be prepared to commit a lot of your time to it.
Building Out Your Blog’s Platform
Once you have your blog set up with a secure hosting environment and you’re ready to launch, it’s time to start building out your blog’s platform. You need to establish what you’ll be covering and how you’ll be covering it. This will help establish your blog as a reliable and trusted source of information. It also builds out your online persona as an expert in your field. When you establish yourself as an authoritative source in your industry, you’ll naturally attract more and more followers. It’s all about credibility.
Attracting An Audience
The next step is to attract an audience to your blog. You can do this through search engine optimization (SEO) or through paid advertising. If you decide to go the paid advertising route, be sure to set up automated payments to ensure you don’t run into any financial problems. You don’t want to be scrambling to make ends meet at the end of the month.
Even better, you could use a tool like Google Adsense to effectively monetize your blog without too much effort. You’ll get paid each time someone clicks on an ad or buys a product that’s promoted on your blog. The bonus is that you don’t have to hand out individual credit cards to individual readers as with many other affiliate programs. This makes it a bit less intimidating (and stressful) to write and publish content regularly. Your blog will start to gain credibility and authority within your industry as you gradually build out a decent sized audience.
Getting Readers To Come Back For More
Once you have a good base of readers, it’s time to start thinking about getting them to come back for more. Why would they come back to your blog? It’s because you’re providing them with value. As experts in your field, you’re demonstrating how you’ve mastered the topic by providing in-depth information and tips on how to use it effectively. When you offer something unique and valuable to your readers, they’ll naturally come back for more.
The key to attracting and retaining followers is to continue providing them with value. People are more likely to come back for more when you can demonstrate you’ve got something new to offer. As a starting point, consider using a service like Google Analytics to track the value your blog is providing to your readers. With the data collected by Google Analytics, you can identify weak areas of your blog and determine what you should be focusing on to better serve your audience. For example, maybe your blog posts aren’t reaching the audience you’re aiming for. Or, you might notice that a lot of your visitors are landing on a specific page and not leaving. In this case, your attention should be focused on increasing the value of that page. This will help ensure your audience stays engaged and comes back for more.
When you’re ready to scale your blog and earn a decent living from it, it’s time to dig deep into how to host your own WordPress blog. You’ll need to learn a few things, but it’s definitely achievable for anyone who’s determined to succeed in blogging.