Before I started this blog, I had no idea where to begin.
I thought I could pick a topic, build a blog, write about it, and live my dream life.
But boy was I wrong!
I decided to do some research and educate myself on the ins and outs of running a blog…
Come to find out there’s a lot more to it then I thought.
I don’t want you to have to spend months researching all around the web like I did. Not knowing whom or what to believe.
That’s why I decided to put together this comprehensive list of articles for you to read prior to starting your blog.
They will guide you on the road to starting a blog and growing it to the point where you can live comfortably from it.
Ready to get started? Here we go:
Starting Out
Looking to start a new blog? Here’s where to start.
Short: a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.
2. 13 Reasons Why You Should Start A Blog Today
If you haven’t started a blog yet, here is an article that will show you the reasons why you should.
3. How To Start a Blog – Beginner’s Guide for 2019
Beautifully put together guide on how to start a blog in 2019. Thanks Jessica.
4. Starting a Blog: A Complete Guide for Serious Beginners in 2019
Another well-thought out guide for starting a blog. First written by Ramsey in 2014. He updated it in 2019.
5. 3 Important Truths About Blogging in 2018
Short article, by Jessica Lawlor, on understanding what it takes to be a blogger.
6. The Ugly Side of Blogging: What You Need to Know Before You Start A Blog
A somewhat different point of view, by Donnie Lawson, on what it takes to run a blog.
Content Writing
The backbone of every blog. Make sure you build a strong one.
7. This Is Exactly What Your First Blog Post Should Be About
Great place to start if you don’t know what your first blog post should be about. Many thanks to Harsh Agrawal for writing it.
8. 101 Popular Topic Ideas On What To Blog About
Depending on your niche, Raelyn Tan has some ideas on topics to write about.
9. What Should I Blog About? How to Choose a Profitable Blog Topic (80+ Ideas)
Another great source for ideas on topics to write about… Thanks Radhika.
10. How to Decide What to Blog About
Get a better understanding of what you should write about and why. Written by Amy Lynn Andrews… mother, wife, and blogging enthusiast.
11. 20 Things to Remember for Writing the Perfect Blog Post
Jeff Bulla’s step-by-step guide on what every post you write must have prior to being published.
12. How to Write Catchy Headlines and Blog Titles Your Readers Can’t Resist
Titles are what sells your content. They are the first thing your readers will see… Learn how to write titles that your readers won’t resist from an industry expert (Corey Wainwright).
13. How to Write a Blog Post – The Ultimate Guide
All encompassing guide on how to write a blog post. Thanks Liz.
14. 7 Editing Tips That’ll Make You a Better Writer (with Examples!)
The most helpful editing tips I have come across. I use these tips every time my fingers start moving. Many thanks for Shane Arthur for writing it.
15. 10 Self-Editing Tips that Will Make You a Better Writer
Additional editing tips from Elisa Gabbert, Wordstream’s Sr. manager of content marketing and SEO, to help you become a better writer.
Growing Your Blog
Now that you have a blog, let’s grow it’s audience.
16. The Definitive Guide To Growing Your Blog’s Audience 3x Faster
Well written guide by Adam Connell on how to grow your blog’s audience and improve user experience.
17. SEO Case Study: How I Increased My Organic Traffic 652% in 7 Days
An invaluable case study on how to grow your blog’s traffic using the Brian Dean’s Skyscraper technique.
18. How I Grew to 62,000 Pageviews in 1 Month (Grow Blog Traffic Using This One Hack)
Learn how this mother of twins dramatically increased her page view in one month.
19. 7 Proven Strategies to Increase Your Blog’s Traffic by 206%
In-depth guide to improving your blog’s traffic from one of the most influential SEO experts on the planet (Neil Patel).
20. 101 Best (FREE) Ways How To Promote A Blog and Increase Traffic
One of the most in-depth articles on on this subject. I still go back to it every once in a while… Love it!
21. 51 Ways to Drive Traffic To Your Site in 2019
Updated guide, written by John Doherty, on how to grow your blog’s traffic in 2019.
22. 10 Strategies To Increase Website Traffic In Under 30 Minutes
One of the first and most influential articles that I came across on this topic when I was starting out. Thanks Matthew.
Social Media
Social Media is here to stay. Let’s embrace it and run with it.
23. The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media!
If you aren’t a social media expert, I cannot think of a better place to start then Moz’s beginner’s guide to social media. The absolute best beginners guide around.
24. Getting Started With Social Media: A Resource Guide
Another well put together guide to bring you up to speed on all things social media.
This WikiHow article teaches you how to get started on Facebook.
26. What is LinkedIn: Beginners Guide on How to Use LinkedIn
LinkedIn is not just for job seekers, it can be an integral part of your blog’s growth. This guide by Rajesh Namase will get you going.
27. The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter
Another well researched guide by Neil Patel to get you started on your path to Twitter dominance.
28. A Beginners Guide to Pinterest +[PDF download]
Downloadable guide to get your started on using Pinterest to grow your blog. Thanks Jens.
Learn how to use Google+ directly from its creators.
30. A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started on Instagram in 2019
This is your A-Z guide to building a solid foundation on Instagram, written by Sue Zimmerman. Don’t skip it.
31. 25 Social Media Channels You’re Probably Not Using Now
Other social media platforms that you might want to be mindful of.
Influencer Outreach
Connecting with the right influencers is critical for your blog’s growth. Learn from some them here.
32. How to Conduct Influencer Outreach That Gets Stunning Results (Updated December 2018)
Read this article by Shane Barker to get started on your first Influencer outreach campaign.
33. How Influencer Outreach Can Revive Your Content Marketing Strategy
Neil Patel shows up once again. In this guide he runs you through some of his best techniques for reaching out to influencers such as himself.
34. How Influencer Marketing Can Boost Your SEO
Article on influencer outreach from an SEO company’s perspective. Thanks Michael.
35. 11 Awesome Tools for Hassle-Free Influencer Outreach
Tools to make your life easier while reaching out to the top influencers in your niche. Thank you Brittany.
36. The Definitive Guide to Influencer Marketing – Everything You Need to Know
This is the most extensive guide on influencer marketing that I have come across in the past year.
37. 6 Ways to Boost E-commerce Sales with Influencer Marketing
Tips from Emil Kristensen on ways to boost sales though influencer marketing.
38. How to Become an Influencer in Any Industry
Stop chasing them, let
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search engines are the main source of traffic for most blogs. Understand them and optimize your blogs for them.
39. The 25 Best SEO Blogs & Resources to Learn SEO
Large collection of SEO resources put together by Danny Goodwin from Search Engine Journal.
40. Learn SEO in 2019 The beginner’s guide even your grandma would understand
If you want to know everything there is about SEO in general, read this guide from Maros Kortis.
41. What is SEO? The 2019 SEO Tutorial for Complete Beginners
Another useful SEO guide for beginners from Tommy Griffith, former SEO manager at PayPal and Airbnb.
42. 67 Best SEO Tips for Bloggers
67 of Grant Sabatier best SEO tips for bloggers. Sabatier is the founder of Millennial Money, a website focused on making financial freedom possible to all.
43. Blogging SEO: How to optimize your blog post to rank like a champion
SEO guide focusing on blog posts written Andy Crestodina, the co-founder of Orbitmedia.
44. 10 Actionable Tips for SEO Optimized Blog Posts
Easy to follow tips from Alex Chris, founder of reliablesoft.net, on optimizing your blog posts for SEO.
Blog Monetization
What’s the point of having a blog if you can’t make money from it? Here’s how!
45. How to Make Money Blogging (Free Guide for 2019)
Jon Morrow makes millions from his blogs, and in this guide he shows you how to make money from yours.
A simple walk through on the process of how to make money from your blog, written by Darren Rowse. He is the founder of problogger.com, a popular blog that helps bloggers generate income from their blogs.
47. How To Make Money Blogging – The Ultimate Guide!
In this Guide, Scott walks you through the many different ways you can monetize your blog. Nothing is held back.
48. How to Make Your First $1,000 Blogging
Sometimes you have to take the little steps before seeing the larger results. In this article, Shannon Clark shows you how to make your fist $1,000 blogging the same way she did.
49. How to Make Money Blogging for Beginners: A Complete Guide to Your First $1,000
Written by Jeff Proctor from breakingtheonepercent.com, this is a well written guide on reaching your first $1,000 month blogging.
50. How I Make Money as a Blogger: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways bloggers are monetizing their blogs. In this guide, Dana Sitar, the content editor at The Penny Hoarder, shows you how to make use of affiliate marketing to monetize your blog.
51. Affiliate Marketing: How to Actually Make Money With it
A different, yet very effective take on how to make money through affiliate marketing. Written by “Carly the Mommy” from mommyonpurpose.com.
52. A Comprehensive Guide on How to Make Money With Google AdSense
The be all, end all guide for monetizing your blog through Google AdSense. Written by Spencer Haws, the creator of nicepursuits.com.
53. How To Make Money With Sponsored Posts
Created by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, the brains behind makingsenseofcents.com, this article shows you how it’s possible to make money from sponsored posts.
54. 9 Steps to Make Money Writing eBooks ($500+ per month)
If you like the idea of writing e-Books, Nick has got you covered with this blog post. Great for anyone interested in selling e-Books through their blogs or Amazon.
55. How to Make Money With an Awesome Online Course: The Complete Guide
Derek Halpern, founder or Social Triggers, holds nothing back in this guide on how to make money from online courses.
Building an Email List
Email lists are a great source of income for bloggers. Here’s how to collect them.
56. Why All Bloggers Need To Build A Mailing List
Before building it, learn why it’s important to do so. No one better to tell you than Scott Chow, the creator of theblogstarter.com.
57. How to Build an Email List for Beginners in 2018
I don’t know how she did it, but Suzi Whitford put together the most in-depth email list building guide around.
58. How To Build An Email List: 85 List Building Strategies
They say that two heads are better than one. Sarah Peterson and Sean Bestor put theirs together to create a long list of strategies for building your email list.
59. How to Build an Email List Without Having a Blog or Website
Outside the box thinking from Sean Ogle over at locationrebel.com. You can use these strategies for building your email list while your blog’s traffic picks up.
60. How to Build An Email List of 1000 in 3 Months – 2019 Best Strategies
Simple, yet informative post on how Anastasia was able to build an email list of 1,000 from her blog in three months.
61. Are You Damaging Your Email List with These 11 Rookie Mistakes?
Paul Jarvis, author of the Company of One, shows you the mistakes to avoid while building your email list.
Pictures, Videos, and Podcasts
Learn about the different forms of blog content.
62. 11 Best Practices for Including Images in Your Blog Posts
Neil Patel teaches what you need to know about using images in your blog.
63. How to Start a Podcast in 2019: Pat’s Complete Step-By-Step Podcasting Tutorial – UPDATED!
This if the ultimate guide on how to start a podcast. Created by none other than Pat Flynn, creator of the popular Smart Passive Income podcast.
64. How to Create Amazing Videos for Your Blog Using Your Smartphone
Video is becoming one of the hottest forms of content online and here’s how to do it from your smartphone.
65. How to Edit Video for Beginners: An Introduction
Once your video is created, this is where to go next in order to edit it and upload it to your blog.
66. How to Avoid Image Copyright Infringement When Blogging
Don’t grab every image you see and post it on our blog. Read guide on how to avoid image copyright infringement.
Time Management
Be your most productive self by following these time management techniques.
67. Pitfalls of Success: The Importance of Time Management for Bloggers
Learn the importance of time management for bloggers from
68. 25 Time Management Tips for Bloggers
Follow these tips from Christie to cut down on wasted time.
69. 20 Most Popular Productivity Quotes to Inspire Your Day
Sometimes we need to be inspired in order to get things done. Here are 20 quotes gathered by Jon Rumens to get you going.
70. Time Management Guide – How to Grow a Blog into a Full Time Business as a Mom
Love this woman, she is so passionate about her blog and it comes through on all her posts. Here is her guide on managing her time between being a full-time blogger, mother, and wife.
71. The 70 Best Productivity and Time Management Books in Existence
The most comprehensive list of books on productivity and time management. Created by Arthur, the brains behind fastertomaster.com.
Outsourcing
The time will come in which your blog’s growth will require outside help. This is where to find it.
72. Should You Outsource Your Blog? 5 Questions to Consider
Read this prior to outsourcing as it will open your eyes to the things you need to consider before doing so.
73. 101 Tasks to Outsource to Virtual Staff to Grow Your Business!
Chris Ducker is the man behind virtualstafffinder.com, one of the best sites for finding a virtual assistant. Here he puts together a list of 101 tasks which can be outsourced to free up more of your time.
74. 27 Time-Sucking Blog Tasks You Can Outsource [Infographic]
Great infographic put together by Will Blunt, the founder of Blogger Sidekick, on time-sucking tasks you can outsource.
75. How to Master Blog Outsourcing as a Small Blogger on a Budget
Now that you know what to outsource, here is how to do it on a budget.
76. How to Outsource Your Content Writing (Successfully)
I wouldn’t recommend it while starting out, however content writing is hard and time consuming. If you are looking to outsource it, here is how to do it from Julia McCoy, founder of expresswriters.com.
77. Blogging Business: Outsource, Delegate + Invest for Fast Growth
Written by Kate from rootandrevel.com, this blog post looks at every facet of outsourcing, investing, and growing your blog.
Selling Your Blog
This isn’t for everyone (me included), but if the time comes to sell your blog, this is how to do it.
78. Case Study: What Happens When You Want to Sell Your Blog?
Must read article, by Sharon Gourlay, prior to selling your blog. Trust me on this one.
79. How I Sold My Website For $100,000
Well written case study on how Yaro Stark sold one of his blogs for $100,000.
80. Buying Blogs, Selling Blogs: How I Built My Blogging Business
Guide on buying and selling blogs for a profit.
81. Heavyweight Help: The Ultimate Guide to Selling Your Blog
Written back in 2013, this guide is still useful to this day. I recommend that you read it if considering to sell your blog.
Taxes: Don’t Hide from Uncle Sam
Nobody likes paying taxes, but its a must if you are monetizing your blog.
Ever heard of Turbo Tax? Here are some tax preparation tips they put together for bloggers like you.
83. How to File Taxes as a Blogger
Whether you consider your blog a business or not, if you are making money from it, the IRS does. Read this article from Melyssa Griffin to file your taxes fast and easy.
84. Six Things Every Blogger Should Know About Taxes…
Rosemarie from busybudgeter.com answers frequently asked questions about taxes from concerned bloggers.
BONUS: Useful Apps/Websites
Below are some of my favorite Apps/Websites.
1. Google
My Homepage. This is where it all starts for me. Don’t know what I would do without it.
2. Canva
A graphic-design tool website. I use it to edit pictures and create new infographics for my blog.
3. Evernote
I first heard of the Evernote app from Tim Ferriss, the author of The 4-Hour Workweek, about eight years about. Ever since then I have been using it for making to do lists and taking notes.
4. Buzzsumo
I use the free version of Buzzsumo while searching for influencers. Has a limit of five searches per day, but it’s enough to get you started.
5. Mailchimp
Love using Mailchimp for collecting emails. Have also ran a few email campaigns through them. The free version allows you to collect up to 2,000 emails and send 15,000 emails a month. That’s enough to get you going for a while.
I am not the greatest writer in the world, so I am always using the Merriam-Websters dictionary app to find correct spelling, meaning, as well as synonyms of certain words.
7. Whatsapp
Used to be a fan of Skype, but switched over to Whatsapp. Mainly use it when I need to get in contact with people overseas.
8. Google Webmasters and Analytics
I bundled these two together because I use them for the same purposes. That is to see how my blog is performing. These tools will track your blog’s traffic and performance stats.
9. WordPress – Website & Blog Builder
I use this app to update my blog on the go. I don’t use it to create articles as I don’t feel comfortable doing so from my phone, but have used it to respond to comments, and make small adjustments to the blog.
Sometimes I like to record ideas that pop into my head about things I would like to write about on the blog, or improvements that i’d like to make. This is the app that I use for such moments. There is an iOS version as well.
To be Continued…
That’s all for now…
Many thanks to everyone involved in the creation of all the articles, guides, and apps mentioned above. Without them, I probably wouldn’t be where I am at today.
I hope you find these resources useful in your journey to starting, growing, and monetizing your blog.
I look forward to updating it with new information as I continue my growth in the blogosphere.
So bookmark it and come back to stay updated on the latest resources that will help you become a better blogger.
Lastly, be sure share it with your blogging pals :).
Do you have a resource which you feel should be added here? if so, please contact me or let me know in the comments section.
