The best way to monetize a personal website is affiliate marketing, which you may be hearing for the first time:
What is affiliate marketing? How does an affiliate make money?
Of course, there are other ways to monetize personal websites: taking business, hanging advertisements, selling courses, paying for reading, publishing books, and so on.
If you don't want to get up early every day and squeeze the subway, don't want to face the ever-changing development needs, don't want to play office politics, don't want to travel on holidays and see a sea of people. You can definitely make money by building your own personal website.
In this article, I will share the step-by-step procedure of building a personal website.
In this process of building, you do not need to have technical experience, do not need to do complex operations. As long as you have strong execution, a personal website can bring you very considerable passive income.
- Step 1: Choose the right field
- Step 2: Choose the platform for personal website construction
- Step 3: Select a domain name
- Step 4: Select the server
- Step 5: Install WordPress
- Step 6: Select the WordPress template
- Step 7: Installing WordPress plugins
- Step 8: Website setup and SEO
Step 1: Choose the right field
If you just want to write something, don't care about traffic, don't care about making money, you don't have to look at the content of this step, skip to the second step.
Before building a personal website (called a Blog abroad, that is, a blog), you first need to determine the positioning of your personal website, that is, which field of content to write.
I suggest you start by writing down everything that comes to mind.
Remember: not a field that comes on a whim, but one that you can study every day without getting bored and still have fun with.
These areas can be your personal hobby, or you can be optimistic about the money-making project, or even you read a boring article, inspired by.
Once you have identified each area, answer the following three questions:
1. At present, in the same field of Zhihu number/public number /CSDN/ Douyin/Little Red book /B station /Twitter/Facebook page, the number of fans has reached 10,000? Or did the reading and viewing reach 1,000?
2. Which books on JD/Amazon are closely related to this field? Have there been more than 50 comments on the book?
3, when you search for some jargon in this field on Baidu/Google, do you see Baidu/Google ads?
If the above questions are clear, congratulations. Your personal website content area is OK because there is a ready-made potential audience.
Do not be naive to think that it is easier to succeed in a field that no one else is doing. If there is no competition in the field, you should never touch, because that means a greater chance of failure.
Step 2: Choose the platform for personal website construction
I divide the platform of personal website (blog) into sharing platform and self-built platform.
A sharing platform is a third-party platform where you register an account to write articles. There are many such platforms, such as public accounts, Zhihu, CSDN, medium.com and so on.
A self-built platform is a platform that belongs to you, built on top of WordPress or something like that.
I'm here to say the truth: for new people who rarely write articles, I recommend testing the water on sharing platforms first. You test your idea at the lowest cost to make sure it works.
When you are confident in writing articles, then use the self-built platform to build a personal website.
Why use WordPress to build a personal website?
According to the latest statistics of W3techs, by the end of 2020, 39.5% of all websites in the world are built using WordPress.
配图
The benefits of using WordPress to build a personal website are unmatched by other free platforms. You have a lot of themes and plugins to choose from, and you can also customize your personal website. The stability and security of WordPress is very reliable, and it is loved by users around the world.
WordPress is an open source program, it itself is free, but we want to use it to build personal websites, we have to pay about a few hundred yuan a year: mainly domain name fees and server fees.
Different people have different purposes for building personal websites: some people want to record their work life, some people want to show their photography, some people want to increase their influence, some people want to make money.
No matter what the purpose of your personal website is, you need to configure a strong backing for it, and I recommend the backing is WordPress.
Step 3: Select a domain name
Here are three aspects: Where to buy a domain name? How to choose a domain name? Ali Cloud how to buy a domain name?
1) Where to buy a domain name?
Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Godaddy, Namecheap and other platforms can buy.
You can buy a domain name in Alibaba Cloud or Tencent Cloud, and the.com domain name on it is about dozens of pieces a year, and the payment is convenient.
You can also buy a domain name in the foreign domain name platform Namecheap.
Namecheap and the domestic Ali cloud, Tencent cloud registered domain name compared, it does not use real name authentication, to a certain extent can protect your privacy.
2) How to choose a domain name?
Here's what I think:
1. The domain name ending in.com is preferred
.com domain names are most recognized by the majority of Internet users, and.com domain names are very common.
2. The domain name is related to the personal website
The website is as relevant as possible to the domain name, if you click in, but see that the content has nothing to do with the domain name, you will not quickly shut down the page? If you saw cat123.com and it had nothing to do with cats, would you shut it down quickly?
The domain and domain name of your personal website must be related, because visitors will have a psychological expectation when they see the domain name. Once the visitor clicks in and breaks his or her expectations, the sense of trust is gone in an instant, and you don't expect him or her to visit your personal website in the future.
Here are 3 different ways to find your domain name:
1. Name it after your target audience:
The easiest way to do this is to call out your users in the domain name. For example: acatslave.com
2. Name it after your website's theme: If your website focuses on specific topics, look for topics that are clearly related to the theme.
Examples: moneymoney.com (money), ilovedogs.com (dog)
3. Name the benefits:
Why would anyone want to see your website? You just give a convincing reason and put it in the domain name!
For example, facai365.com prettypics.com Prettypics.com
With these three methods, come up with 3-5 keywords, before and after matching some domain names, and then go to the domain name platform query.
Choosing a good domain name is not easy, but my advice: don't spend too much time on it. Why?
Because there are more important things to do than choose a domain name, such as building a website, creating content, and drainage.
If the domain name is not chosen at the beginning, you can choose a better one later, and replace the previous domain name, and this operation is very simple.
3) Take Alibaba Cloud as an example, explain how to buy a domain name
Click the link of Alibaba Cloud click the upper right corner to complete the login operation, and then click to visit the domain name registration page of Alibaba Cloud
Enter your desired domain name and click Search Domain Name:
配图
If no one is taking the domain you want, you can click Add to the list
配图
General domain name 1 year charge dozens of dollars, first buy 1 year, choose the domain name holder, is an individual or a business (the first purchase you have to improve the holder information), and then click Buy now.
配图
Once the payment is made, the domain name is yours.
Step 4: Select host/server
If you're not familiar with the term host/server, think of it simply as "a warehouse on the web." You need to find an online repository for your website to store your content.
If the main users of your website are in mainland China, one thing I have to mention here is the website ICP registration. The first time you do ICP filing, it will take 15 days if everything goes well.
If the main user of the website is not in mainland China, just ignore the ICP filing.
Let’s talk about 3 benefits of doing ICP filing for personal website:
1) Faster speed: Registered websites can use servers in mainland China. When users from mainland China visit your website, the loading speed will be faster.
2) More traffic: Your registered website will be indexed by domestic search engines such as Baidu and Sogou first. You can get free traffic from Baidu and Sogou, and you can also activate Baidu statistics for free.
3) Can be affiliated with Taobao Alliance and JD Alliance: Only websites that have ICP registration can put affiliate links of Taobao Alliance and JD Alliance on the website.
Web server how to choose?
I made two points:
1) The closer you are to your site's target audience, the better
2) Try to choose well-known and reliable server manufacturers
If you do not want to do ICP filing, you can use the server in Hong Kong, China, which is also fast.
If you are targeting users throughout Southeast Asia, choose a server in Hong Kong or Singapore
If your website is mainly for German or American users to see, the server will choose Germany or the United States, free of record, worry, speed can also be.
There are many well-known host/server providers that professionally support WordPress abroad, such as SiteGround and Cloudways that I have used。
Step 5: Install WordPress
Here's how to install WordPress using the SiteGround host.
There is a detailed graphic introduction on the website, please check in turn:
How to apply for SiteGround host?
How does SiteGround perform domain name resolution for host addresses?
SiteGround host installation WordPress hand by hand tutorial
Step 6: Select your WordPress template
Before choosing a template, I must emphasize that the content of your website is far more important than the template!
Even if your website is plain, unattractive, and slow to load, as long as the content is good, your website can still get traffic and earn passive income.
On the other hand, your website can be very beautiful, loading speed, if the content is not good, no one will look at your personal website.
I repeat: don't get lost in the details. The personal website can be used at the beginning, the function is normal, you can optimize it at any time, more beautiful and so on.
Now how to choose a template:
The WordPress template is the overall design of the site, which determines the appearance of your site.
You may think: there are too many templates, see dazzling, in the end how to choose?
If you don't know what WordPress templates to use, I recommend 3 templates that I think are suitable for beginners:
1. Blocksy(free)
2. Astra (free)
3. Kadence (Free)
If you want to check out other WordPress templates, then check out the WordPress template recommendations in this article:
After selecting a template, download and install it.
How to install WordPress templates?
Here are the steps:
1. Appearance in the left navigation menu of WordPress background
2. Choose a theme, which is what I'm used to calling a template
3. Click Upload theme above
配图
At this point, you have two options, search for a theme and upload a theme:
配图
# 1: Search for a theme (template) here and install it.
配图
# 2: Download the theme somewhere else, then upload the theme, select the file, and install it now.
配图
How do I activate a WordPress theme after installing it?
In the left table of contents, click Appearance, Theme.
配图
Find the theme you want to use and click Enable.
配图
Step 7: Install the WordPress plugin
There are too many plugins for WordPress, and many articles mention "must install these plugins" and "must install which plugins".
If you really listen to them and install too many plug-ins, then your website is likely to slow down and seriously affect the user experience.
Here I simply recommend a few free plugins for reference:
1. Editing plug-in: Classic editor
配图
The default WordPress editor is too difficult to use, I'm currently using the classic editor. To add a plug-in page, search for "classic editor".
2. Acceleration plug-in: WP Super Cache
配图
It helps you cache website content, improve the loading speed of the tool.
Note: If you are using SiteGround's host, because SiteGround comes with an accelerator plugin, you do not need to use this plugin.
3. Backup plug-in: UpdraftPlus
配图
The overall performance is good, the rating is 4.8/5, and there is a free version.
配图
4. SEO: Yoast SEO or RankMath
配图
Plugin tools to help you optimize SEO, Yoast SEO and RankMath are popular.
How do I install plugins?
Click plug-in in the left directory, and then click Install plug-in
配图
Similar to the install theme (template), click Upload Plugin, or search the plugin name in the search box on the right:
配图
Then install it.
If you want to upload a plugin, just install it
配图
The search plugin is installed as follows:
配图
How do I enable the plugin?
On the left side of the directory, click plug-ins, the installed plug-ins, then locate the plug-in you want to activate and click Enable. (WP Super Cache has been automatically translated into Chinese super cache)
配图
Step 8: Website setup and SEO
Here's the basic operation:
1) Ensure the visibility of the site to search engines
Make sure you don't check it here
配图
2) Create and submit a Sitemap to search engines
To keep it simple, submit a Sitemap to help search engines understand your site's architecture.
Let's start with creation:
If you install the Yoast SEO mentioned earlier, creating a Sitemap is simple:
Find the plugin in the left directory and click General
配图
Click General again, scroll down, find the XML sitemap (depending on the version, the location may vary), and make sure it is open
配图
Then submit Sitemap:
Once the site directory is determined, click the question mark to the right of the XML sitemap
Then click See XML Sitemap
配图
The browser will open a new page that copies the link to the domain name
配图
Submit to Google
With a Google account, log into the Google search console: https://search.google.com/search-console
Assuming your website hasn't been added to this console yet:
Start by clicking add property to add your website.
After you add it, on the left side of the Google console, select your site.
配图
Click Sitemaps under index
In adding a new sitemap, enter the Sitemap link you just copied and click Submit.
配图
Submit to BING for access
https://www.bing.com/webmasters/about
Sign up for BING, then go to Add a Site and click ADD
配图
In the left pane, click Configure My Site and select Sitemaps.
Below submit a sitemap, enter the Sitemap link you just copied and click Submit.
配图
3) Modify the fixed link format
The default WordPress link format is yourdomain.com/?p=123
This kind of link is not welcome by search engines and visitors, it is strongly recommended that you modify the format before writing the article:
On the left side of the table of contents, click Settings, fixed link, and select the article name or a custom structure like mine.
配图
This makes it easier for both visitors and search engines to understand our article titles.
4) Install SSL authentication
After SSL is installed, your URL will start with HTTPS in front of it, with a security lock displayed.
For this site, for example, HTTPS is enabled
配图
Without this SSL, both search engines and visitors will perceive your site as insecure and will be less impressed by it.
How do I install SSL?
Here is a brief explanation of installing SSL using the SiteGround host as an example:
Click the link below:
