5 Must Have Blogging Hacks for 2015

You have thought long and hard picking out just the right domain, secured hosting, pointed your name servers, installed WordPress, and all that jazz.  But now what?

We have all been there. Creating a site (either to showcase your product or simply to blog), diving in headfirst with content fast and furious like, but then the momentum slows or altogether dies.

I would be willing to bet though if you had an “in” or yes even a hack that laid out what some of the big players are using, that might give you a jumpstart into high gear.  Below is my short list of tools, services and tips that I personally use to stay ahead of both the nagging lack of “umpff” and competition.

Genesis Theme

You put a lot into your site – you want to make sure that you’re ranking well in the search engines so readers, customers, and clients can find you. Isn’t that the point?  Genesis aids to help accomplish this with not only a clean, optimized code + smart design framework, but also with a bevy of responsive themes, and a customized control panel that enables intuitive control of the theme appearance without having to know a bunch of code.

The robust framework boasts the following benefits:

• Built in Search Engine Optimization

• Added Security Features not found in your standard WordPress framework

• Standards Compliant XHTML and CSS Coding

• Pre-Packaged Designs Ready to Go for both personal and business genres

• Consistent Updates that Mirror WordPress changes

HostGator

A hosting solution might seem either like a no-brainer or yet another daunting task to derail you from your goal.  With hundreds of available web hosting solutions, how are you supposed to know which solution is going to be best for your site?  Listen to recommendations from those that have the experience.

Hostgator has a long standing reputation for being the best at up times, pricing (they offer several reasonable plans to choose from), and customer service.   They also offer a easy and quick WordPress install that beats other hosting solutions hands down.  (This coming from personal experience.)

Fiverr

The entire concept behind Fiverr is that for five bucks, you can sell or buy – anything.  Anything from social media prowess services, writing (both content and copy), voice over talent, and even video production.

Be careful of those “Upgrades” though.  Originally Fiverr only focused on $5 jobs, however recently they allowed sellers to implement upgrades to their jobs in increments of $5, $10, and $20.  This could be viewed as a drawback, but in reality it means there are now more quality jobs on the site to choose from.

LongTailPro

It’s pretty simple to put up a website/blog as well as write or have the content written for it, but actually knowing what keywords to target and how to select a niche for your site is what’s going to either make you or break you.  LongTailPro helps tremendously with this task.

Search engines are in love with long tail keywords!  If you are able to provide relevant content targeting these long tail keywords, then you can see a dramatic increase to the amount of traffic Google and other search engines send you. Long Tail Pro is a powerful keyword research tool that makes finding these valuable long tail keywords a breeze.

Benefit breakdown:

1. Find Long Tail Keywords and domains faster

2. Analyze the competitors in Google

3. Check where your sites rank in Google

4. Generate keywords and domains to build small niche sites

5. Enhance the presence of your business through smart keyword targeting

MailChimp & Aweber

I can’t begin to stress the importance of an email marketing campaign, let alone all the doohickies that are needed to make it “go.”   However, to start you need a email list server in which I have two recommendations.

MailChimp is great for smaller lists.  They offer a free package for up to 2000 subscribers.  Of course they tag your outbound emails with relevant ads (mainly their own).  Their set up is quick, easy, and able to integrate into many turn-key site builders.

MailChimp in a nutshell:

1. Free or low cost

2. Easy integration with Twitter and numerous turn-key site builders

3. Easy to understand reporting

4. Clean embed code

5. Offer a one-click unsubscribe

Aweber on the other hand is one of the world’s most popular email marketing tools.  They offer a vast array of form and newsletter templates, Blog RSS feeds, email analytics, and customized forms.   Coupled with it’s 99% deliverability rate, it’s a clear choice for serious email marketers.

Aweber benefits:

1. Create unlimited follow-up messages, broadcast messages, and lists

2. Super easy set up

3. Free 24/7 Customer support

4. Flexible Campaign Customization

5. Affordable Pricing