Category: Blogger

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Blogger Blogging Education how to's Tutorials Websites

Starting Your Blogging Journey: A Detailed Guide to Using Blogger

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As I promised that I would write detailed articles for how to create each website type I mentioned in a previous article, well here I am and let’s begin with blogs. Creating a blog can be an exciting journey into the world of online expression and communication. Whether you’re looking to share your thoughts, showcase your expertise, or build a community around a topic you’re passionate about, Blogger is a user-friendly platform that can help you achieve your goals. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating your blog on Blogger and I’m going to take you through the whole process.

Step 1: Purchasing Your Domain Name

Before you dive into the blogosphere, you’ll need a domain name – this is the web address where people will find your blog. A great place to start is Namecheap, a reputable domain registrar known for its affordability and customer service and it’s massive discounts too. Here’s how to purchase a domain with Namecheap:

  1. Visit the Namecheap website and use the search bar to find your desired domain name.
  2. Once you’ve found an available domain, add it to your cart and proceed to checkout.
  3. Complete the purchase process by creating an account and making the payment.

Step 2: Considering File and Email Hosting

While Blogger hosts your website, you might want additional services like file and email hosting, Truehost Nigeria offers these services, providing a secure and reliable option for businesses and individuals in Nigeria. However, it’s not necessary to have separate hosting since Blogger takes care of your website hosting needs. For file storage and sharing, Google Drive is an excellent alternative that seamlessly integrates with Blogger.

Step 3: Setting Up Your Blog with Blogspot Subdomain

If you’re not ready to use a custom domain, you can start with a free Blogspot subdomain provided by Blogger. Here’s how to set it up:

  1. Sign in to Blogger with your Google account.
  2. Click on ‘New Blog’ and enter a name for your blog.
  3. Choose a blog address with the Blogspot subdomain (e.g., yourblogname.blogspot.com).
  4. Select a theme and click ‘Create Blog’.

Step 4: Adding a New Template

To give your blog a unique look and feel, you can add a new template, Templatify offers a range of premium and free Blogger templates that are SEO optimized and responsive. To install a new template from Templatify:

  1. Download a template from Templatify and unzip the file to find the .XML template file.
  2. Go to the ‘Theme’ section in your Blogger dashboard.
  3. Click on ‘Backup/Restore’ and upload the .XML file from your computer.
  4. Once uploaded, the new template will be applied to your blog.

How to Add a Custom Domain

Adding a custom domain to your Blogger blog not only enhances its professional appearance but also makes it easier for your audience to remember and access your site. Here’s how you can set up a custom domain, and activate redirection from non-www to www and HTTP to HTTPS.

Adding Your Custom Domain

  1. Purchase a Domain: If you haven’t already, purchase a domain from a registrar like Namecheap.
  2. Sign in to Blogger: Go to your Blogger dashboard.
  3. Access Settings: In the left menu, click on ‘Settings’.
  4. Update Publishing: Under ‘Publishing’, select ‘Custom domain’.
  5. Enter Domain Details: Type in your purchased domain URL and save the changes.
  6. Verify Domain: Blogger will provide you with CNAME records to add to your domain’s DNS settings. This verifies ownership and links your domain to Blogger.

Redirecting non-www to www

To ensure that visitors typing your domain without the ‘www’ prefix still reach your site, you’ll need to set up a redirect:

  1. Access DNS Settings: Log into your domain registrar’s control panel and locate the DNS settings.
  2. Modify A-Records: Add A-records for your domain pointing to the following Google IPs:
    • 216.239.32.21
    • 216.239.34.21
    • 216.239.36.21
    • 216.239.38.21
  3. Activate Redirect in Blogger: Back in Blogger’s settings, turn on the option to redirect the domain (mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com).

Activating HTTPS Redirection

For enhanced security, enabling HTTPS is crucial:

  1. Turn on HTTPS: In Blogger’s settings under ‘Basic’, find the ‘HTTPS’ section and select ‘Yes’ for ‘HTTPS Availability’.
  2. Enable HTTPS Redirect: Ensure ‘HTTPS Redirect’ is also turned on, so visitors are always directed to the secure version of your site.

By following these steps, your blog will not only have a custom domain but will also ensure that your visitors are always redirected to the correct and secure version of your site. Remember, DNS changes may take some time to propagate, so be patient after making these adjustments.

How to Link your Domain to Cloudflare

When setting up a custom domain for your blog, using Cloudflare for DNS management can provide several advantages over a typical domain registrar’s DNS service. Cloudflare is renowned for its robust set of features that go beyond basic DNS management, including email routing, a free SSL certificate, redirection rules, and additional layers of security.

Linking Your Domain to Cloudflare

To link your domain to Cloudflare, follow these steps:

  1. Create a Cloudflare Account: Sign up for an account at Cloudflare’s website.
  2. Add Your Site: Click on ‘Add Site’ and enter your domain name.
  3. Select a Plan: Choose from the available plans; even the free plan offers a wealth of features.
  4. Update DNS Records: Cloudflare will scan your DNS records and provide you with new nameservers.
  5. Change Nameservers: Go to your domain registrar’s website and replace the existing nameservers with the ones provided by Cloudflare.

Why Choose Cloudflare?

Cloudflare stands out for several reasons:

  • Email Routing: Easily manage and route your domain’s email addresses.
  • Free SSL Certificate: Secure your blog with HTTPS encryption at no extra cost.
  • Redirection Rules: Implement forwarding rules to redirect traffic as needed.
  • Enhanced Security: Benefit from Cloudflare’s built-in DDoS mitigation and DNSSEC for added protection against online threats.

By using Cloudflare’s services, you can ensure that your blog is not only more secure but also benefits from improved performance and reliability.

As I conclude this guide on creating a blog with Blogger, I’ve taken you through the essential steps to make a blog using Blogger with. Blogger’s user-friendly interface and seamless integration with Google’s tools make it an ideal platform for both novice and experienced bloggers alike. As you begin this thrilling journey, remember that your blog is a canvas for your unique voice and vision—so let it shine!

Looking forward, the blogging world is filled with even more opportunities. For those eager to delve into other platforms, keep an eye out for my upcoming guide on creating a blog using WordPress. This platform offers a comprehensive framework for those who desire greater customization and control over their online presence. Whether you’re blogging as a hobby or aiming to carve out a professional online niche, WordPress is equipped to accommodate your aspirations.

So, keep your inspiration alive, and prepare to explore the depths of the blogging world with my forthcoming WordPress tutorial. Thank you for reading, let me know what you think in the comments below, and also share this article to help others!

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Blogger Blogging Comparison Review WordPress

WordPress vs Blogger: A Personal Comparison

WordPress and Blogger are two of the most popular blogging platforms on the internet. They both have their pros and cons, and choosing the best one for your needs can be a challenge. In this article, I will share my personal comparison of WordPress and Blogger based on several metrics, and as someone who has had the experience of both. I hope this will help you make an informed decision for your own blog.

Rankings in Google

One of the most important factors for any blogger is how well their blog ranks in Google and other search engines. This affects the visibility, traffic, and authority of your blog. According to a study by Ahrefs, WordPress blogs tend to rank higher than Blogger blogs on average. This is because WordPress has more SEO features and plugins that help optimize your blog for search engines. For example, you can use plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math to improve your site structure, meta tags, keywords, and more.

Blogger, on the other hand, has fewer SEO options and customization. You can edit some basic settings like title, description, and robots.txt, but you have less control over other aspects of your blog. For example, you cannot change your permalink structure, add schema markup, or use advanced SEO tools. This can limit your ranking potential and make your blog less competitive.

In my personal experience, I noticed a significant improvement in my rankings after I switched from Blogger to WordPress. My blog went from page 3 to page 1 for some of my target keywords, and I also got more organic traffic which I wouldn’t give much credit to the use of WordPress though but this is not to say that Blogger blogs cannot rank well, but it requires more effort and expertise to do so.

Traffic Sources

Another metric to compare WordPress and Blogger is the traffic sources of your blog. This refers to where your visitors come from and how they find your blog. There are different types of traffic sources, such as organic, direct, social, referral, email, and paid. Each of these sources has its own advantages and disadvantages, and you should aim for a balanced and diversified traffic mix.

Because of a vast SEO and optimization options, WordPress blogs get more traffic from organic and direct sources than Blogger blogs. This means that WordPress blogs are more likely to be found by people searching on Google. This is mostly because of the SEO plugins which give you full SEO options than in Blogger. With WordPress, search engine crawlers have more access to your site as there are multiple sitemaps for posts, pages, categories or even custom post types.

Blogger blogs, on the other hand, get more traffic from social and referral sources than WordPress blogs. This means that Blogger blogs are more likely to be shared on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, or linked from other websites. This also indicates that Blogger blogs have more viral potential and exposure than WordPress blogs. Blogger being a Google service, the chances of being featured on platforms like Google news are higher than those of WordPress blogs.

In my personal experience, I barely noticed a shift in my traffic sources after I switched from Blogger to WordPress. I currently have traffic from organic and direct sources, which is more consistent and stable than social and referral sources. However, I also have some traffic from social and referral sources, which is more unpredictable and volatile. Therefore, I still have to work hard to maintain and grow my social and referral traffic by creating engaging content, building relationships, and promoting my blog.

Speed

Speed is another important factor for any blogger, as it affects the user experience, SEO, and conversions of your blog. A fast-loading blog can improve your bounce rate, dwell time, and engagement, as well as your rankings and revenue. A slow-loading blog can have the opposite effect and drive away your visitors and potential customers.

According to a study by Pingdom, WordPress blogs are faster than Blogger blogs on average. This is because WordPress has more options and plugins to optimize your blog speed, such as caching, minifying, compressing, and lazy loading. For example, you can use plugins like WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, or Autoptimize to improve your blog performance and speed.

Blogger, on the other hand, has fewer options and plugins to optimize your blog speed. You can tweak some settings like image size, widget load, and HTTPS redirect, but you have less control over other factors that affect your blog speed. For example, you cannot use caching, minifying, compressing, or lazy loading on Blogger. This can make your blog slower and less efficient.

In my personal experience, my blog was actually faster when I was using Blogger. Of course it has a few tweaks and has no plugins but that’s it’s strong point. Blogger’s simplicity makes Blogger blogs extremely fast which means that you won’t need any of those caching plugins or optimization plugins. Another thing is that Blogger themes are lightweight, and with the theme I was using, I had an impressive Google Pagespeed Insights score but with WordPress, that score took a decline.

Earnings and Adsense Integration

Earnings and Adsense integration are another metric to compare WordPress and Blogger. This refers to how much money you can make from your blog and how easy it is to integrate Google Adsense, the most popular advertising network for bloggers. Adsense allows you to display ads on your blog and earn money when your visitors click on them.

According to a report by Blogging Basics 101, WordPress blogs can earn more money than Blogger blogs on average. This is because WordPress has more monetization options and plugins than Blogger. For example, they claimed that you can use plugins like Ad Inserter, Advanced Ads, or AdRotate to manage and optimize your ads on WordPress. You can also use other monetization methods like affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, or selling products or services on WordPress.

Blogger, on the other hand, has fewer monetization options and plugins than WordPress. You can use Google Adsense on Blogger, but you have less control and flexibility over your ads. For example, you cannot choose where to place your ads, how many ads to show, or what types of ads to display on Blogger. You can also use other monetization methods like affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, or selling products or services on Blogger just like on WordPress.

In my personal experience, I believe that it’s easier to monetize your Blogger blog rather than a WordPress blog. Blogger has a minimalistic interface which makes it easy to setup Google Adsense as compared to the clustered WordPress dashboard. I also think that Blogger blogs are more prioritized by Google as per the review period of your blog.

Ease of Use

Ease of use is another important factor for any blogger, as it affects the time, effort, and enjoyment of blogging. A user-friendly blog platform can make your blogging experience easier, faster, and more fun. A complicated blog platform can make your blogging experience harder, slower, and more frustrating.

According to a survey by WPBeginner, WordPress is easier to use than Blogger for most bloggers, which I don’t validate on a personal point of view. They say that this is because WordPress has more features and plugins that make blogging simpler and smoother. For example, you can use plugins like Elementor, Beaver Builder, or Divi to create and customize your blog design with drag and drop. You can also use plugins like Jetpack, Akismet, or Yoast SEO to enhance and secure your blog functionality.

Blogger, on the other hand, is harder to use than WordPress for most bloggers. This is because Blogger has fewer features and plugins that make blogging simpler and smoother. For example, you cannot use drag and drop to create and customize your blog design on Blogger. You have to edit HTML and CSS code to change your blog appearance. You also have fewer options and plugins to enhance and secure your blog functionality on Blogger. All this is true about the creation and management process, the blogging experience is a whole lot different.

In my personal experience, I noticed a significant improvement in my ease of use after I switched from Blogger to WordPress. My blog creation and management became easier, faster, and more fun. I could use drag and drop to design my blog, and I could use plugins to improve my blog performance and security. On the other hand, the blogging experience of Blogger is more minimalistic and easy to use as compared to the blog editor you get with WordPress. However the Blogger editor has less functionalities and sometimes you have to use HTML to get the work done and not everyone can do this. This is not to say that Blogger is impossible to use, but it requires more learning and coding to do so.

Conclusion

WordPress and Blogger are two of the most popular blogging platforms on the internet. They both have their pros and cons, and choosing the best one for your needs can be a challenge. In this article, I shared my personal comparison of WordPress and Blogger based on several metrics, such as rankings, traffic, speed, earnings, and ease of use. I hope this helped you make an informed decision for your own blog.

Based on my personal experience, I prefer WordPress over Blogger for my blog. I think WordPress offers more advantages and opportunities than Blogger, and it suits my blogging goals and style better. However, this does not mean that WordPress is the best choice for everyone. Blogger may be a better option for some bloggers, depending on their preferences and purposes and I would recommend Blogger if you’re just getting started with your blog and don’t have much blogging experience.

Ultimately, the best blogging platform for you is the one that meets your needs and expectations. You should consider your blogging goals, budget, skills, and audience before choosing a platform. You should also test and compare different platforms to see which one works best for you. You can always switch platforms later if you change your mind or want to try something new.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and learned something new. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below. I would love to hear your feedback and opinions.

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Blogger Websites WordPress

Creating a fully functional website with a custom domain name

Image Credit: iStock

Creating a full website with a custom domain name and taking it online is not a simple task but today I’m going to show you 2 different ways of creating a website which are quite simple. For starters, some words that are going to be mentioned in this article might be new to you or might be confusing but I assure you that after you’ve finished the process, you’ll understandthe jargon. First of all, there are 2 methods as I mentioned earlier are:

  • Blogger
  • WordPress

My personal favourite is WordPress and if you have guessed it right, it’s the CMS (Content Management System) I use for blog. Now before we talk about the CMS first we need to talk about the domain name.

Acquiring a domain name

This is the first step of the process and I’m going to walk you through it all. Since it’s about creating a website for free we’re going to be working with free domain names ( .tk .ga .gq .ml .cf ) but for those who are serious you can consider buying yourself a domain ( .co.zw .com .org .net .xyz .org.zw .ac.zw) and if you want to buy any one of these, I recommend Webzim and NivaCity for their cheap services.

Creating a Freenom account

The only free TLD (Top Level Domain) provider so far is Freenom. With Freenom getting a domain name is very easy but the hardest part is your account being able to get a domain. Now, I’ve seen some articles and YouTube videos that claim that if you use a United States address and zip code when registering your account it will work (haven’t tested it though). To create a Freenom account, follow this link to go to a US address generator and use the provided details to register your account on Freenom.

Acquiring a free TLD

Now that you have your Freenom account, go to this page to create your custom domain name. The trick there now is that if you want to use a .gq domain name, in the text box enter your desired custom domain name with it’s extension e.g sqeel.gq and it will automatically have a .gq domain placed in your cart cart. Continue with the checkout till you reach the point where you have finished making your domain name. And now that you now have your domain name, let’s get to the next step, choosing a hosting provider.

Choosing a hosting provider

There are tons of free hosting providers but I recommend InfinityFree and Freehosting. You might be wondering why I chose these two out of many hosting providers across the web. The two are some of the best free hosting providers on the market since they have flexible specs. They offer a reasonable amount of bandwidth and disk space and also have a softalicious app installer. Now you get it. Right?

Freehosting.com

I’m not going to talk about the plan’s overall specs, I’m just going to get straight to the point. Freehosting.com offers you 1GB of storage space and 10GB of bandwidth. The biggest disadvantage of using free hosting providers is that they don’t give you full DNS settings, and so does Freehosting.com. Freehosting.com also gives you the softalicious app installer which is used to install apps like WordPress. However freehosting.com doesn’t let you use a free domain with their service hence the only choice is InfinityFree.

InfinityFree

InfinityFree has a much more flexible UI compared to Freehosting.com and it also has better specs than Freehosting.com. InfinityFree gives you unlimited storage and bandwidth, however they have a few terms and conditions. They also have the softalicious app installer and a few DNS zones just like Freehosting.com. The best part about InfinityFree is that you can create an SSL certificate for your site which makes your site more secure and reliable by your audience (the one which shows a secure icon before the domain name in the address bar).

Had your choice?

If you’ve made up your mind, and you’ve made a choice on which hosting provider to choose, create an account for that provider (click here for InfinityFree and click here for Freehosting.com). To add your domain in either one of the providers, select the custom domain option during registration instead of the sub-domain option. Now to add your domain name to the hosting provider you’re going to receive 2 nameservers which are going to look like this (only for InfinityFree):
ns1.epizy.com
ns2.epizy.com

Now to insert these nameservers, login to your Freenom account and click ‘My domains’ and then ‘Manage domain’ for your custom domain name. Click ‘edit nameservers’ and click on ‘use custom nameservers’ and add the two nameservers with the first one on top and the second one at the bottom and click Save. You’re now done with adding the nameservers so go back to the registration page for your hosting provider and now add your domain. It might take up to 20 minutes for your domain name to be online and functioning. Hooray, your site is now online and running. Now to add the content we need the CMS I once mentioned earlier.

Blogger CMS

Being the simplest of all, blogger doesn’t have much settings and customisations to do like other Content Management Systems. To create a blogger account, go to blogger.com and create your blog. At this point you’ll have to use a subdomain that ends with .blogspot.com, which you will later change to your custom domain name. To add your custom domain name go to settings in your blogger dashboard and go to ‘custom domain’ now add your custom domain with the www prefix and you’ll get 2 CNAME records which consist of a name and a description. The first CNAME record always has the name www and the destination ghs.google.com but the second one is unique for your domain name. Copy these two CNAME records and login to your hosting account and navigate to the CNAME section and add these two CNAME records. This change can take up to 72 hours so please be patient. After you’ve added your domain, you’ve now successfully integrated your domain with blogger CMS. After integrating your domain name you now have to add a theme to your blog and there are dozens of them acrossthe internet. Now if you’ve chosen your desired template, go to the themes section and click on edit template and then restore and select your theme then it will be automatically uploaded. If the theme fails to install, open the theme in your notepad and copy the whole template by clicking CTRL + C and then click edit HTML in the blogger page and clear the HTML there by clicking CTRL + A then backspace then CTRL + V to paste. And you’re done, your site is now online with a beautiful theme and you can now start writing articles on your blog. Happy Blogging!

WordPress CMS

As I mentioned earlier, WordPress is my favourite CMS and also the one I use for this blog. Now to setup your WordPress account login to your CPanel and go to softalicious app installer. WordPress is always at the top of the list so click on install and select your desired installation parameters and then install your app. When your installation is done, you can go to your website admin dashboard by using the link yourdomainname.domain/wp-admin. Login with your admin details. Now to add a theme to your site go to the themes section then select your desired theme and activate it. You can also customize it depending on your preferences. And you’re done, your site is now online with a beautiful theme and you can now start writing articles on your blog. Happy Blogging!

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Blogger Blogging Websites WordPress

Tips to starting a successful blog

Image Credit: Main Street Marketing

Many people fancy blogging as a really hard task and also demotivate those with the potential of starting blogs. Sometimes this is because they see most people trying out blogging and then end up failing in a month or two. Failure to run a blog is mostly due to lack of information as beginners and also lack of commitment. Many bloggers give up after receiving a small amount of views or when their site is rejected by Google AdSense. This should not be a reason for one to stop running their site though. Personally when I came into this industry, that’s how it was for me. No views, AdSense denial and stuff but this never brought me down. So to those who want to start new blogs and also those who once failed and want to give it another try, I’ve got an article for ya’ll.

Steps to starting a successful blog:

  • Use a real domain name with a known TLD( e.g example.com or example.co.zw) instead of using a free subdomain (e.g example.wordpress.com or example.blogspot.com) and a free domain (e.g example.tk)
  • Optimise your site’s speed. For WordPress users you can do this by using cache plugins and optimisation plugins and also link your blog with CloudFlare CDN.
  • Create a social media handle for people to know you. I recommend Instagram as it is the fastest to grow on and also the most used locally.
  • Improve your google search appearance ( you can do this by adding your site to google search console)Share every new post on various social media platforms to market your content. I recommend having many WhatsApp and Facebook groups to have a large audience. 
  • Avoid plagiarism when writing your articles. This is one of the biggest factors that’s stopping many bloggers in their way as most copy and paste other people’s articles on their sites and apart from copyright infringement this has many consequences including losing views.
  • Don’t rush to get your site on AdSense or Google News, you’ll only be rejected. For AdSense you need at least 60 articles of the same niche to get accepted. Avoid using pop-up ads and those annoying ads where some of them even have NSFW content.
  • Don’t use slang language when writing your articles, this makes the readers have no zeal when reading your articles and you end up losing audience.
  • Collaborate with other content creators on social media and produce something great.