Running a GED blog is a rewarding venture that allows you to help others while making yourself some profit from ad revenue. There are several ways to go about starting a GED blog but each method shares a basic structure that ensures your blog is well received by readers and search engines. Follow this quick guide to setup your own GED blog and start earning ad revenue or building your informational brand today.
Choosing a Domain Name and Acquiring SSL
The first task you’ll need to do when starting a GED blog is to choose a relevant domain name. A great tip to follow here is to go with a popular domain extension like .com or .org rather than some of the lesser-known domains like .guru or .website. Recognized TLDs like .com give your website more authority but there is an argument to be made for choosing a domain extension like .courses, .education, or .training if you’re not overly concerned about the immediate perception of your domain’s authority.
Regardless of the domain extension you choose, it’s best to get a SSL certificate to give your users confidence in your blog’s security and legitimacy. These certificates can be purchased from most providers from $40 – $200 per year but are sometimes included with your hosting plan. You can also find a host that allows Let’sEncrypt or another free SSL provider to save some money in this area.
Finding the Best Host for Blogs
Another factor that will separate your blog from the thousands of others on the web is which host you choose. It’s wise to go with an established host that keeps up with modern web standards. Look for web hosting providers that use newer hosting technologies like Virtual Private Servers (VPSs.) Not only will choosing a reputable host help you keep your data safe but visitors will notice fast loading times when they visit your blog if you’re keeping it on a server from a modern web host.
Picking a Content Management System
When it’s time to start building your new GED blog you should give some consideration to which CMS you’ll be using. Whichever Content Management System you choose will be with you for the life of your blog unless you decide to do a complete overhaul in the future.
Most blogs do well on the free and open-source CMS WordPress or its more versatile alternative Drupal. Remember to go with a host that allows and is perhaps even optimized for the CMS that you select. This will make your life easier as you’re installing the CMS and related software and will even help your site run faster and more smoothly as updates and configuration options will be more accommodating on CMS-optimized web hosting.
Installing Your Template or Theme
The part of your GED website or blog that will first garner your readers’ attention and opinion is the theme or template that you choose. Themes and templates are simply the frontend user-interface of your blog that allows you to display your content with graphics and interactive menus.
There are plenty of free themes for blogs on the WordPress and Drupal theme repositories and third-party developers have designed thousands of premium themes if you’ve got a few bucks to enhance the looks of your blog upfront.
For best results, select a theme that was specifically built for blogging. You may even be able to find an education-based theme or template to help unify your content and designs. Use agreeable color schemes and be consistent with your styling throughout. Most themes allow you to change the colors and fonts through a point-and-click menu on your administrator dashboard.
Adding Content and Features
If you want to rank highly in search engine results then you should have at least a dozen blog posts ready when you launch your blog. You should go ahead and install your theme so that everything is setup but when you make your first post it’s a good idea to have more reading material available in case users want to spend more time on your blog right away.
Download some free graphics and images from copyright-friendly websites like Unplash or Freepik to help decorate your website. These images should also accompany your blog posts to break-up the reading or any long blocks of text. Consider producing or embedding some video content on your posts as well to make your content more interesting and give your visitors more options for how to consume your information.
Marketing Your GED Blog for Success
Lastly, there are several ways you can market your new GED blog to help increase the amount of traffic you receive. Whether you’re building your GED blog for ad revenue, to extend your brand, establish your educational authority, or simply to help others, it’s important to garner as much organic traffic as possible.
Some of the best ways to get a lot of traffic to your blog include buying ads for audiences who have already expressed interest in acquiring a GED or going back to school on social media. Facebook and Twitter allow for this kind of audience customization.
Other ways to market your blog include posting flyers about it at community colleges, discussing it on other education-based blogs, posting links to it on forums and social media accounts, and printing business cards with your domain to distribute when you meet people.
By building and operating your own GED blog you will be helping others who want to advance their education while opening opportunities for yourself to establish your brand or make some extra income blogging. Make sure to choose solid, professional blog hosting and install a reliable CMS like Drupal. Pick a theme that suits your content well and fill your articles with plenty of pictures and media to make reading more interesting. Market your blog heavily when first launching it so that you can establish an audience quickly.
