Samantha

If you have been using WordPress.com for a while and feel like it is time for a change, it is important that you know how to go about transferring your website to WordPress.org so you can enjoy the many benefits that come with doing so. Many people are making this transfer so they can be in full control of their website and make more money with it at the same time.

Before you Start

There are going to be some things that you will need before you get started with the process of transferring your website over to WordPress.org, including:

 

• A reliable web host: It is extremely important that the web host you choose for your website knows WordPress and is familiar with it. Bluehost is just one of the many options you will have, and they provide new customers with a free domain as well as 50% of the hosting plan they offer.

• Access: You will also need access to your WordPress.com account, enabling you to transfer all of your images, posts, comments and everything else to your self-hosted WordPress.org website.

 

Making the Transfer: A Step by Step Guide

 

• Exporting Data

 

The first step in the process of moving your website from WordPress.com to self hosted WordPress.org is to sign into your current account on WordPress.com and go to the Dashboard section of your blog. Click “Export” under the Tools menu.

If you wish to transfer your posts, comments and all other forms of media to your self hosted website on WordPress.org, you can export all of them. You can create an XML file that contains all of your posts, comments and everything else, which you can save or import into another WordPress blog. If you want to transfer this data without having to pay anything, simply click “Export”. When it comes to the next screen, you will have to choose which data you want to export. Click “All Content” and press the “Download Export File” button. The XML file will download to your computer and it will contain all of your data from your WordPress.com website.

 

• Setting up WordPress

 

You will then have to do a brand new install of WordPress on your web hosting (we recommend Bluehost); it is extremely easy to install and only takes a few clicks of your mouse. After you have installed WordPress, you will need to import your content into your new self hosted WordPress.org website.

 

• Import all of your Content to your Self Hosted Website

 

In order to import all of the content on your current website to your new WordPress.org site, you will have to go to Tools>Import in the WordPress.org dashboard. Then you will need to click on  the “WordPress” tab. You will then be asked if you want to install the WordPress Importer plugin. After this plugin is installed and activated, you will want to run it. A screen will come up where you will be asked to upload the XML file from your WordPress.com website that you first downloaded at the beginning of this process.

Note: If the XML file you are importing is larger than 2MB, you will have two different options to choose from. The first option involves assigning your old content to an existing WordPress user, and the second method is to create a brand new user. If you want to import all of your old attachments, make sure to check the appropriate box so that all of the images are importanted as well.

If you exported all of your old links/blogroll, you should definitely take the time to import them. The process that is required for doing this is fairly similar to the above-mentioned process. Simply navigate to the “Import” page from the “Tools” tab, click on “Blogroll”, install the plugin and choose the location for the exported link or blogroll file and import it.

 

• Making your WorddPress.com blog Private

 

The last step in this process is making it so that your old WordPress.com website is completely private. If you don’t want your old users to get redirected to your new website, then you will definitely want to take the time to follow this step. First go to the Reading page, located under the Settings tab, on your WordPress.com Dashboard. Select the option “I would like my blog to be private, visible only to users I choose” at the bottom.

 

• Redirecting your Users

 

If you want to keep your search rankings up while moving your website, it will be necessary to redirect users to a new location with a 301 header. Because you do not have access to .htaccess on WordPress.com, you will not be able to make any changes by yourself to keep your search engine rankings. WordPress.com does however offer a paid upgrade to users, and it is called Offsite Redirect, which is exactly what you will need. Navigate to WordPress.com blog’s dashboard and go to the Store Menu. You are searching for the Offsite Redirect upgrade. This update can be purchased for a fairly reasonable amount, and it will provide you with 301 redirect, allowing everyone who visits your website as well as the search engines to automatically redirect to your new site on WordPress.org. This is a very important part of the transfer process, so make sure you don’t forget it.

Bringing your Subscribers over to the New Site

If you are wondering what happens with all of your WordPress.com subscribers, there is no need to worry. WordPress.com will allow you to transfer all of your subscribers over, provided that you use the Jetpack plugin, which adds the same subscribe function that you had on your old website. After you install and activate this plugin, you will have to contact the WordPress.com staff and request that they migrate all of your subscribers.

 

Making the transfer from WordPress.com to WordPress.org is a good decision for many people who are ready to take control of their websites and really start making money off them. This is a fairly simple process, but it is important that you follow all of the required steps for the best results.

Traffic is like oxygen for a blog – it can’t succeed without it. If no one is reading the content you’re crafting, then not only will you probably find it very disheartening, but it also means you have no way to monetize and earn money from your site!

The problem is that traffic takes a long time to grow… and you may not have the time to wait! Fortunately, there are a number of strategies (often referred to as ‘growth hacks’) that you can use in order to accelerate this process. Here are some of the best…

Influencer Marketing

Basically, influencer marketing means that you’re going to stop focusing on creating a large quantity of followers and fans and instead focus on building a high quality of followers. Or more specifically, you’re going to find followers who already have lots of followers. The idea then is that you will market through them and that way gain access to the giant audience that they already have.

In practice, one example of this might be to get your link onto a very high profile blog. Imagine for a moment that you want to promote a ‘tech/productivity blog’ and grow your traffic. One option would be to submit your site relentlessly to directories, to write lots of in-depth posts for your blog and as guest posts and to share to social bookmarking sites. Over months and years, you would gradually establish an audience and by the time you were old and grey, you might be where you want to be.

Or you could get a single link on Tim Ferriss’ blog. What do you think that would do for your business? You’d immediately have an influx of hundreds of thousands of hits every single day and many of those visitors would become new fans, in part thanks to the endorsement of Tim. That one link could do more for your business than thousands of links on the sites of ‘non-influencers’.

Sponsoring

If you have a little cash, then you can get the benefits of influencer marketing more quickly by paying someone to give you a shout-out.

So, to use the example of Tim Ferrris again Mizzen + Main have been sponsoring him to promote their ‘non-iron’ dress shirts, no doubt to fantastic effect.

So, how can you do something similar for your blog? If you have a smaller budget, of course you can pay a much smaller creator and get the same benefits on a smaller scale.

Give Something Away

Here’s your next growth hack: give something away for free!

Ideally, this should be something that isn’t going to cost you too much – such as an eBook which is a digital product and so has no overheads or delivery costs. The idea here then is to give your users a ‘taste’ of what you have to offer and of your value, with the idea being that you’ll pique their interest or get them hooked.

This is something that dealers know all too well. They may be morally reprehensible but they’re good businessmen and they always say that the ‘first hit is free’.

Giving stuff away for free of course is what the internet and blogging has pretty much been founded on since it was started. Blog content is almost always free and this is how we’re able to convince people to buy our eBooks, courses and affiliate products. Blog posts are a way of demonstrating that we know our stuff, such that our audiences will then listen to us.

Let’s imagine for a moment that you are being targeted by another blog’s cold e-mail marketing. You’ve never heard of this blog before but somehow they’ve gotten hold of your details (most likely they paid for them) and they know that you’re interested in making money online. They write to you and tell you to click this link to get their ‘Top Five Ways to Make Money Online’. Boring right?

Now imagine a different scenario – they tell you that you can download a completely FREE PDF report and video tutorial on a new form of growth hacking. The PDF is completely free, and you can download it straight from DropBox. Now there’s a much bigger chance you’ll click to open that e-mail right?

Content Marketing With Social Bookmarking

We mentioned content marketing earlier and pointed out that it is also a relatively new term when it comes to marketing yourself on the web. Like influencer marketing though, it is also a highly effective tool when used correctly.

Content marketing can be used for multiple things and most generally it’s considered a way to build authority and trust over time. The idea is that you upload new blog posts regularly, making sure that they are always highly informative and entertaining and gradually build the trust of your visitors and create an army of fans.

But if you change your strategy ever-so-slightly, you can also use content marketing to get yourself thousands of hits from just one easy link.

How? Simple: you write an article that everyone wants to read and that is going to be very popular and then you share it to a sub community.

The steps are simple:

• Identify a potential market that you want to reach – small niches and subject matters are usually the most effective
• Write your blog post specifically for that audience and make sure it is designed to be something they would definitely be interested in
• Create a title that really sells the post and the information therein. Make sure you put across the valuable information readers will learn, or the emotional hook that will draw them in and make the book worthwhile.
• Next, find a place where you can reach that community directly. This is your ‘route to market’ and a good example is a sub Reddit, or a Google+ community.

This might seem rather simple and straightforward, but the reality is that a single post like this that has genuine value and that lands in the right community can earn you hundreds of thousands of views immediately and build lots of inbound links on forums and social media pages too.

Get go and take a look at Reddit now. Pick any popular ‘sub’ and you’ll likely find that the top posts regularly gain 10,000+ ‘upvotes’. If you think that it’s likely every upvote will mean 10-100 visits to that link, then you can immediately see the value in this.

A great post like this can also become ‘link bait’ – meaning people will link to it from forums and blogs simply because they think it is news worth sharing. In other words… you could go viral!

 

With all of the different plugins and resources there are to help you with building up the number of email subscribers for your blog, it is important to look into some of them. The following is a list of the top plugins and other resources that have helped countless people to capture as many email subscribers as possible.

 

• LeadPages

 

Leadpages is the very best option when it comes to creating squeeze pages quickly and easily. Although it is not designed specifically for WordPress, it does include a plugin that can be integrated with WP sites. It also includes a feature called LeadBoxes, which is a great resource for building up your email subscriber list. With this resource you simply place a button or link in the post or page, and whenever a visitor clicks on it, it will open a form that they can fill out to subscribe to your email list. While this can be a very effective resource for capturing more email subscribers, you do have to pay each month for it. There are numerous plans you can choose from and they start at $37 per month.

 

• SumoMe

 

SumoMe is a free plugin that has become very popular recently. It allows you to create a basic popup form on your site to collect the email addresses of visitors and it integrates with MailChimp, AWeber, Campaign Monitor and Constant Contact. There are numerous customization options as well as display options. When it comes to free popup plugins, this one is definitely one of the best choices you will find on the web.

 

• Optin Monster

 

Optin Monster has also gained a lot of popularity as of recently, and when it comes to list building, it is one of the better resources available. There are a number of different things that make this plugin such an excellent choice, including the fact that you can create a number of different types of optin forms, and it integrates very well with all major email marketing providers, including AWeber and GetResponse. It also provides you with statistics and A/B split testing, and you always have complete control over the look of your forms.

One of the most impressive things about Optin Monster is the fact that is uses “exit intent technology”, which essentially tracks and analyzes the visitor’s mouse movements to detect when they are about to leave the page, which is when it displays the form popup form before they can hit the back button or enter another web address. This is a very intuitive plugin that provides visitors with a chance to see what your website is all about before it shows them the popup optin form.

In addition to popus, this plugin also enables you to create sidebar forms, slide-ins, end of post forms and floating footer bars. All of these things can be very important when it comes to making your WP website as successful as possible. When you create end of post forms, you will get a shortcode that you can use in a page or a post where you the form to be displayed to the visitor. This plugin is updated semi-frequently and there have been a number of features added in just the past year. This plugin starts at $49 for a single-site license. If you want to get a 3-site license, you have to pay $99, and the Pro plan they offer is $199 and allows for use on an unlimited number of sites.

Popup Domination

Popup Domination has been around for a while and was partially responsible for starting the whole trend of WP plugins as well as optin forms, and it is still a great option for many people. One of the best things about this plugin is the fact that it offers some great looking popups and forms that can be used to get visitors to subscribe to your list. It’s extremely easy to get a form that will look good on your website, because this plugin has a wide selection of templates to choose from, and eveyrhting is fully customizable. Popup Domination features A/B testing, analytics and you get to control when and where the popup is displayed on your website. One of the more unique features of this plugin is the “forced subscribe” one that will hide your page or post content unless the visitor first subscribes to it. A single-site license for this plugin costs $47, a 3-site license costs $77 and an unlimited license costs $97.

Hybrid Connect

Hybrid Connect is another great option that allows you to create a number of different types of optim forms, such as popups. Part of what makes this plugin different from so many of the others that are like it is its remarkable versatility. With this plugin you will be able to create popups, sidebar forms, slide-in forms, squeeze pages, optim forms for social media sites like Facebook and in-content forms. With all of the different options available with this plugin, it is definitely a resource worth looking into if you want to make your website as successful as possible.

Some of the other features that are associated with Hybrid Connect include split testing, stats, over 30 different templates and a form builder that is easy to use. A single-site license for this plug costs $47 and a multi-site license (can be used on an unlimited number of your own sites) costs $67.

Ninja Popups

Ninja Popups is one of the other great resources to look at if you are trying to get as many email subscribers as possible for your website. There are lots of great things about Ninja Popups, including the wide variety of popups and optim forms there are to choose from. This plugin itegrates with major email marketing providers and social networks. With a low price tag of just $20, it is definitely worth looking into, especially if you need all the help you can get with signing people up for your email list.

Becoming an ‘authority blogger’ is one of the most valuable things you can accomplish online. Whether you intend on being a full-time blogger/webmaster, or whether the blog is a side interest to a larger business; this is an incredibly advantageous point to get to.

What exactly does it mean to be an authority blogger? Essentially, it means that you are considered a thought-leader. Your blog is not just well known, it is not just visited by lots of visitors… it has reached the point where your readers trust what you have to say and actively seek out your opinion on subjects.

Once you get to the point, you’ll find that you are able to sell products and affiliate services like never before: because your recommendation and opinion will hold so much more sway. Sponsors and advertisers will want to work with you. And if you sell any kind of service, then you will be able to charge a significantly higher amount.

So how do you get to the point where you are considered an authority? Here are some of the most powerful steps and strategies:

1 Provide Value

The single most important thing you can do to reach ‘authority blogger’ status, is to provide value. That means that every blog post or video you make should include some kind of actionable advice, or some kind of information that the reader did not know before.

If you are writing content to try and bring people to your website, then you may find yourself tempted to get away with offering as little value as possible. That might mean using ‘clickbait’ titles and covering your articles with spam. It might mean offering ‘surface level’ information that people already know, or even inaccurate information.

This will not work. If you want people to keep coming back to your site and to listen to what you have to say… well then you need something that is worth saying.

2 Be an Expert, Hire an Expert, or Research… LOTS

This is the mistake that a lot of cynical webmasters and internet marketers hoping to make a quick buck will make. They mistakenly believe that they can build an audience simply by hiring writers and outsourcing their content.

This CAN work, but only if the writer is an expert in the field. This is MORE important than the writer simply being good at their job (writing).

Think about it: if you hire someone with zero interest in fitness to write you an article about fitness, then what is that content going to be like? The writer will do some research, but you aren’t paying them enough to learn all about human biology, bodybuilding techniques, personal training strategies…

In short, the research will be shallow. And the content is going to be derivative. You’ll get something like ‘5 Great Ab Exercises’. This might get the occasional read, but it is simply not enough to establish you as an expert in your field. On the other hand, if you really know and love the subject matter, then you can say something actually new or find information that most people won’t know.

The best scenario is to enter a niche that you are genuinely passionate about. And failing that, you can try hiring someone else who is – or positioning yourself as the ‘dedicated researcher’.

3 Build a Personal Brand

We don’t generally think of companies as being ‘authorities’. For starters, they have ulterior motives when it comes to recommending products. At the same time, companies are typically faceless and represent numerous different opinions and interests.

So, what can you do instead? The answer would be to build a personal brand. This means that you are putting your name and face front and center and thereby positioning yourself as someone reachable and someone who is an expert.

And just as with any other brand, you then need to think about your brand image and brand visibility. Every job you take on that you put your name on, every interaction… that will either strengthen or weaken the brand image you are trying to put forth.

Community engagement is also critical to this end and will help people to feel as though they can reach you when they need to – which helps a lot with building trust.

4 Association

One of the very best things you can do to position yourself as an authority, is to align yourself with other authorities. So that might mean doing a cross promotion with another big blogger in your niche, occasionally name-dropping, or even just recommending their work.

Try to find other authorities that you respect and whose goals align with your own. Ideally pick someone at a similar ‘level’ to you, and then try reaching out in order to suggest working together.

5 Quality

If you want to be taken seriously, then it is crucial that your brand project quality. That means your web design, it means your writing quality, it means video production (if you are creating video).

In other words, you need to put forward a professional and honed image. You want your website and your YouTube videos to be representative of the kind of value you can provide to clients, or that your products will also offer. So, don’t put out low-quality content and say ‘that will do’, as this will actually drive people away from your business.

And think about it: if you want a big blogger to consider linking to your blog, then it can’t be covered in ads and low-quality images. That will hurt their reputation otherwise. If you want to compete and work with the best in your niche, you need to reach the same level of quality.

 

The final tip is to stay persistent and don’t give up. Success doesn’t come overnight and the only way to get to the top of your game is to keep providing that quality and value day after day. Do this, and eventually you will build a legion of followers who hang off of your every word.

Blogging is a minefield when you first start out. There’s so much potential here and no doubt you’re probably already dreaming of what your life will be like once you’re a ‘top blogger’ with a massive, consistent, passive income from writing about something that you feel passionately about.

But it only takes a mistake for that dream to disappear in a puff of smoke. Smaller mistakes meanwhile can leave you spinning your wheels and making no progress. How disappointing would it be to work hard on a blog for years and make no progress because of a few avoidable mistakes?

Here are 7 that you should avoid at all costs.

1 Having a Badly Designed Site

You’d think this one would be obvious, but it’s actually one of the most common issues you’ll run into when you look around the web.

People seem to think it’s okay to have a site filled with low res stock images, a free WordPress theme and poor grammar. Maybe they’ve covered it in adverts.

But this will immediately limit your potential for growth in numerous serious ways.

For starters, it will make other bloggers and authorities in your niche far less likely to want to associate with you. It will prevent potential customers from wanting to spend money on your site. And it will mean many people dismiss your opinion – even if you actually had something very interesting and useful to say!

2 Using the Plural

‘We here at ‘health bloggers.co’ are very interested in health and how it can impact the rest of our lives. Sounds okay sure, so what’s the problem? Well, unfortunately many of the people using the plural in this way are not members of groups, organizations or businesses. In other words, they’re pretty much just pretending at being a company when it’s actually one dude sat at home in his pants.

And the unfortunate thing is that everyone knows that. I’m sorry fella, but by writing ‘we’ you really aren’t fooling anyone. A blog owned by a large company will have several new articles uploaded a day, unique photos and a very professional web design. There is nothing wrong with being indie – in fact it’s quite hip to be independent these days. But that said, there’s nothing more amateurish than making out you’re a big organization when it’s plainly obvious that you aren’t. So, don’t do it…

3 Avoiding Controversy

There’s a very successful blogger who writes about self-development and general success. His name is Steve Pavlina, and his blog is actually very deserving of its success being a great read and regularly updated.

And part of the reason that the blog is so interesting is that it tackles some very interesting subjects and doesn’t shy away from controversy. Many people it seems are just too afraid to talk about subjects like religion, vegetarianism, politics etc. because they don’t want to offend half their readers. It makes sense, but actually, that then just leaves the blogs a lot less interesting than they could otherwise be. People don’t have to agree necessarily with your articles, but if you can generate some kind of emotional reaction then you are on to a real winner. If people are angry at what you’ve written, then that’s good – because they’ll remember it for sure this way.

4 Not Having a Strong Brand

More to the point, the aim is not to try to appeal to everyone. Know your audience and deliver great quality, in-depth content that they will find riveting: even if you ruffle a few feathers along the way.

This comes down having a strong brand image and knowing what your brand represents. What is your site really about? Who is it for? What are your values?

Knowing all this is crucial because it will allow you to better market your site and to hone in on your target audience. If you are a fitness site, then ask yourself what kind of fitness site you are. Are you a ‘fun’ fitness site? Or are you a hardcore bodybuilding site? This will change everything from your marketing, to your logo design, to your subject matters.

5 Writing Opinion as Fact

While it’s okay to be occasionally controversial, you do have to make it clear that this is your opinion and not claim that it’s fact. At the same time, you need to make very certain that you are certain on any facts that you do report – if you are sharing inaccurate information and someone notices then this will instantly make you look very amateurish and you will lose those viewers. There’s no surer way to lose trust and authority (two of your most valuable commodities) than to write nonsense and disguise it as fact.

Not only that, but you really don’t want to attract too much angry dispute in your comments – and certainly not to engage with it if you don’t have evidence to back up what you’re saying. If you write in a scientific subject area, then look for references wherever possible. Otherwise, quote your sources!

6 Not Investing in Social Media Marketing

Content marketing and social media go hand in hand. At first, social media growth will be slow and you might feel as though you’re shouting into the void… it can be very easy to just ignore it.

But once you start gaining traction here, you can use it to cross-promote your new posts and it will make a massive difference to your viewer count. So, invest a little time here to begin with and then grow it with time.

Also: if you have the skills then create a YouTube channel. This tip is potentially game-changing, don’t ignore it!

7 Not Providing Value

Finally, the biggest and most serious mistake you can make is not providing any value.

Many of the points we’ve looked at so far come down to your motivations as a blogger. Have you created a blog in a niche that you’re passionate about? Are you proud of the design? Do you have something useful, new and interesting to say in each post?

Or have you chosen a niche that you know is popular, paid a cheap writer to fill it with generic content, tried to design it yourself and covered it in ads?

Think about all the sites you read on a regularly basis – that make the real money and have huge audiences. What sets them apart from the trashy, spam-filled sites you see advertised on marketing sites?

They’re good…