Niche Blogging For Profit

Today I’m going to talk about what to do after  you’ve decided on the perfect niche idea.

1. Buying a domain name. In order to be looked upon as a professional, it is best to buy a domain and hosting. The price of a domain can vary quite a bit so shop around for a price that works for you. For domain names only I have found 1&1.com to be reasonably priced ($6.99 for one year of a .com domain) and easy to work with. Since you will most likely be transferring your domain to another web host (I strongly advise against hosting with 1&1.com) you want to find a company that makes it easy to change your name servers (DNS).

The most important thing is to include your niche keyword or phrase in your domain. Next you should focus on trying to get a .com but, like with dating, most of the good ones are taken. If you cannot get a .com domain, you should get a .net. Only as a absolute last resort you should try any other type of domain. While .info and .org are generally assumed to be okay, I have found that they do not provide the same effect to customers and search engines as .com and .net.

Use this domain search to see if the domain name you want is available!

2. Find a good hosting company. Just about everyone is offering hosting nowadays. While there is some debate within the niche marketing world, I still find Hostgator to be the best hosting company around. For one, they are reasonably priced at only $7.95 a month for unlimited domains hosted. Their Cpanel makes it easy to install WordPress (which I highly recommend using for your blogs) as well as other applications that are useful in maintaining a website or blog. Second, on the few occasions that I have to contact customer service, they have responded quickly  within a day or two and explained things clearly and thoroughly. When working online, customer service should trump price every time. This is your business and livelihood so it is important to deal with people who take it as seriously as you do.

3. Install and Set up WordPress.Once you have your domain name pointed to your web hosting account, you can install WordPress from the Fantastico De Luxe option on your Cpanel. You will have to set up a WordPress account with a separate username and password. As of right now you have to do this for every blog you set up with WordPress. Although it’s a bit inconvenient, you can use the same information for each blog if you want to make it easier to remember. At first it all may seem a bit confusing and overwhelming but WordPress also has many options available to you if you need help with something. Browse their extensive FAQ menu or post a question in their helpful community forum to get quick answers to any of your questions. Alternatively, you can email me at admin(at)nichebloggingforprofit.com and I will try my best to answer any of your questions.

4. Customize your WordPress Blog. At WordPress.org you can find tons of free themes, plugins, and widgits for your blog. Plan on spending some time browsing around to find items to best suit your needs. Personally I like three-column themes. I have my favorite list of plug-ins including Adman, All-in-one SEO, Gospress, and Inline Javascript which I upload to every one of my blogs. I still find widgits a bit iffy to work with but you may have a better experience with them so go ahead and give them a try. You will need a FTP program to upload your plugins and themes to your hosting. This is probably the most difficult thing to learn when dealing with WordPress but once you have it figured out it will be clean sailing. I use Smart FTP which is a free program and fairly easy to learn. If you have any problems figuring out your FTP address (you can find them under the FTP Manager option of your Cpanel) you can email Hostgator and they should be able to tell you what you are doing incorrectly.

Now your WordPress niche blog is set up and ready to start adding content to! Next time I will talk about writing for your niche blog, finding advertising that will help you earn money from your blog, driving and tracking the traffic to your blog.

Happy Blogging!