11 Reasons Why My Blog Is Better Than Yours
Those who have visited my site for quite sometime would know that I love to reinvest into my business. The only way your going to build your site bigger and better is to work really hard and put money into it. In this post, I want to run over the things I find most important, things that make my blog stand out from the crowd and the things that help the site run so smoothly.
Here’s a list of 11 things that make my site better than most:
1. Buy The Perfect Domain
A domain name is the first thing people see when they come to your website. Actually they see it before they even come to your site, that’s why it’s so important.
Earlier this year when I start ExpertPhotography.com with my brother, I knew we had to get a good domain. The photography niche is very competitive and has a lot of people in it. One thing you will notice with all the top sites is they have great brandable domains. I started just typing domain ideas I like into my web browser and seeing if they had a site. The majority had, however when I got to ExpertPhotography it had a landing page at BuyDomains instead. BuyDomains is basically a brokering company that work on behalf of the owner to sell the domain. I contacted them and after some negotiating I bought the domain.
Great domains are not just the ones people see as an authority but also ones that hold a great brand. One thing I like to do with my domains is to make them describe what the site is about. Let me show you how this works.
- ExpertPhotography.com – It’s about being an expert at photography.
- Retireat21.com – How to retire young.
- AwesomeWeb.com – How to build awesome websites.
Here’s an example from one I came up with for a friend. He wanted to blog about outsourcing and so I came up with SaveTimeOutsource.com – it describes what the site is about in the domain, yet is short and catchy.
2. My Blog Design Is Amazing
Most new bloggers will use a premium WordPress theme, such as one from Woothemes. This is something I recommend, we did it with ExpertPhotography. However, after a while, when you start making money from your site and you want to take it to the next level, that’s when you get creative and design a site.
I’m not a designer, neither are you probably, so I would recommend you hire someone instead of yourself attempting to do it. My top tip for for creating great sites is looking at all your competitors, find out what they all do really well and put all those things together to make one really well done site.
IncomeDiary will always be a work in progress, every time I have a new idea, I get it implemented. Every time I see something isn’t working out, I get it removed.
3. I Have Guest Writers
Before I started getting people to write for me on IncomeDiary, I was publishing a post perhaps once a week, in some months I’d struggle to write just one post!
If you want to dominate in your industry, get other people to write for you. Before you do this though, I highly recommend you set high standards and pay your writers to make sure you deliver the best to your readers. Since applying this approach, we have been able to publish content nearly every day and over the last 6 months, quadrupled our traffic.
4. I Have My Own Product
If you constantly put out great free content, they will always want more. Create and sell your own eBook or course and those who want more will come and buy. This is a must have! I love promoting affiliate products but the one draw back is, your always helping another person out and that person is most likely your competitor. Having your own product means you keep everything and you get to improve your brand.
5. I Have a Mailing List
If your still not building a email list, then your leaving money on the table and your not getting as much traffic as you could get. The great thing about mailing lists is that every time you publish a blog post, you can let all those people who subscribed via email know about that new post. This brings thousands of people to my site every time I publish a post!
Try Popup Domination if you want to play ‘catch up!’
6. I Diversify My Income
If you rely on just one income stream for your website, then your not making as much money as you should! On average, you can make three times more money if you monetize your site in three different ways instead of one. There are only so many people who will pay for an advert on your site and only so much room to display ads. When I went from monetizing Retireat21 with just banner ads to diversifying my income with multiple techniques, I drastically increased my earnings.
Check out these 14 ways you can make money from your website.
7. I Have Great Hosting
I have used over a dozen hosting company’s since I started online. Always read reviews and ask friends before you get a host. The worse thing for me as a website owner is having my site offline. If you have seen The Social Network film about Facebook, your remember the scene when they talk about their server and how it can’t go offline because the second it does, people will start looking else where. The same applies for your blog, if your site is offline, people will look else where.
A few recommendations when choosing a host:
- 24/7 Live Support! This way, if you have problems, you can always reach someone to help fix it.
- A wide range of hosting offered, so as you build your online business, you can increase your hosting with little to no downtime.
- 99.9999999 up time. If they have any track record of their servers going offline, I wouldn’t recommend you use them.
- Have been around for a few years. Don’t ever go for a new company’s, this may sound mean but this is your business and you need to be sure that who you host with, will be responsible and will be sticking around.
I personally use HostGator to host IncomeDiary, I use one of their VPS’s (a type of server). It also hosts ExpertPhotography. So far, I have had very little problems with them, on the rare occasion the server goes offline, it’s always been my fault and my brother has been able to go into the live support and just ask them to reboot it.
The other day, ExpertPhotography was running slow, my brother went on their live support and asked why. They told him two wordpress plugins were slowing down the site. He removed the plugins and it went back to full speed. They help you. Personally, they are worth more to me, than I pay them.
8. I Have Popular Posts
This may sound like a small thing but it’s really important. When you visit a blog and you like what they have to say, the next thing you look for is a collection of all their best posts. You do this because you want more! Popular post widgets make it easy to display those posts.
On IncomeDiary, my popular posts section is custom coded and is not a plugin. On my other site, I use Woothemes and a widget they offer with their themes, allows you to display popular posts. I love that feature! Yet again, another company, going the distance with what they offer their customers.
9. I Have a Great Combination of WordPress Plugins
It’s amazing the difference a bunch of WordPress plugins can do. You can see 20 WordPress Plugins I recommend, by click here.
10. My Site Is Optimized For Search Engines
Traffic is everything, without it, what we do would be pointless. Thanks to my buddy David, we have been able to implement all of his search engine optimization tips to get my site to rank highly in Google, which has meant a 200% increase in search engine traffic, that means I get over a thousand more visitors a day.
Click here to see the blueprint we followed to get my site to rank well.
11. I Publish Great Content
Everyone when they start, they are more concerned about how their site looks. The first thing you need to think about is CONTENT! That’s why people are going to visit your website. Focus all your time on great content, that will bring traffic and then once your sites getting a decent amount of traffic, focus on making money from those visitors.
Don’t make the mistake most people make, don’t focus on monetization at the beginning. People who do that seem to only ever focus on the money and that really comes across in their content. Blog for the love of the subject, that first. The money comes naturally.
Hope you enjoy this article. Let me know what things you think you can implement after reading this post!
About Michael Dunlop
I'm Michael, I created this site back in 2009 and since then it's received over a million visitors from all around the world. We offer tutorials and inspiration for online entrepreneurs wanting to achieve more.
21 comments so far… Leave a reply
Sheyi Shobayo
January 25, 2012 3:38 PM
Your site is actually amazing but not as sweet as mine - go check it out www.ivblogger.com it rocks too. Great post BTW Sheyi
Momekh
January 25, 2012 3:46 PM
Now you're just showing off :P Great going MD. I am working on a product myself for the blog. Your blog's always on my 'copy this guy' list hahahaha :) Hope you are having a great day man! God bless & good luck for the not-so-new year :)
Adam
January 25, 2012 4:01 PM
Great post. I like the cheeky confidence in the writing too. I need to get back to being more consistent with my sites...the more consistent I am the more articles I'll write overall resulting in more Google traffic. Also people are creatures of habit and if you are not posting consistently you site will move off their reading list if you're not careful.
Adam R
January 25, 2012 4:04 PM
Michael, I recently came across your site last week along with several other great bloggers you mention in your articles and just wanted to say I have really enjoyed all the knowledge you share with people. Those who find success often tend to guard their "trade" secrets but you guys are like an open book. It's refreshing to see others really wanting to help people to succeed. Keep up the great work you guys do!
Jack
January 25, 2012 4:10 PM
This site is awesome and very well designed. I have a few questions for you, if you would be willing to answer them :D How can I put a floating email sign-up thingamajig on my site (yours is on the right side of the page; it's orange and gray). Also, what theme is this?
Andy
January 25, 2012 4:28 PM
Host Gator, great hosting. What an oxymoron :-)
Kit Elliott
January 25, 2012 4:55 PM
I'm hearing a new theme song: "Doncha wish your blog was hot like mine!"
Kerwin - Cruisinaltitude.com
January 25, 2012 4:55 PM
Fine, so I have work to do :-).
Sam
January 25, 2012 5:02 PM
Good to hear from you Micheal... Great post.. woothemes link not working.. You have been changing lot of functionality in your website.. but to me its time that you change your color scheme and fonts probably !! Cheers.. Sam
Sean M Kelly
January 25, 2012 5:12 PM
Hi Michael Great article. You're one of the few blogs I read regularly and it's always great content - the question is how to get the time to implement all that you suggest! Cheers Sean
teresa
January 25, 2012 5:31 PM
Hi Michael, Do You use All-in-One-SEO plugin or build-in SEO in WooTheme ? Is there any difference between them, if so could you explain this ? Which one is better for search engines, which one do You recommend to use ? Best wishes, Teresa
Dan Sumner
January 25, 2012 6:18 PM
Great stuff Michael, Just one question can you recommend a good popular post plugin. I like the functionality of your sidebar popular post widget, did you hire from Elance for this one? Thanks for the cool info, Dan
Mike
January 25, 2012 7:50 PM
I really liked your new post. There are a few points I never tought before, so I will implement to all of my websites. Sorry I have to tell you, but I don't use Wordpress based websites - I don't know why, but I'm not ok with it. Instead, I use Drupal for all my blog style websites. Keep on this way !
Jamie Northrup
January 25, 2012 9:25 PM
The worse part is I know those are the reasons you're more successful with your blogging than I am, I need to get my act together and follow through on all these things, I have products that are half finished, I need to get them done. As for the first thing though, I don't want to change the domains of all my current websites, but I'm putting more effort into the new projects I start to make sure it's keyword rich and relevant.
zoe
January 25, 2012 11:01 PM
Nice blogg thank you for sharing your information. I have some blogs on my site which I update sharing information on complementary therapies, health, stress busting essential oils, my offers, and a sign up thing how do you manage to get so many people to your site I am on adwords google etc etc would like to know how to get more visitors to visit my site who may be interested in the articles I write and the treatments I provide
Michael
January 26, 2012 3:55 AM
The design of the blog definitely continues to improve.
muhammad asif
January 26, 2012 6:23 AM
Dear Michael Dunlop Your knowledge has deeply inspired me. I find it very fruitful.
Rk
January 27, 2012 11:53 AM
11th reason is true
Smashious
January 27, 2012 11:56 AM
Great Tips. Thanks for the share.
Yuri @ profoundtigger
January 30, 2012 5:55 AM
I also use hostgator for my hosting service. I'm currently using a shared hosting until i get enough readers ill start to upgrade to a vps server as well.
danielle
February 6, 2012 10:10 PM
Thank you for putting this list together.