12 tips to make 2012 your best blog year yet

Iwant you to have a great blogging year in 2012. If you are not happy with your performance in 2011, if you want to improve in 2012, here is my best advice on how to blog better, grow your traffic, and turn your blogging efforts into a real business.

How to make 2012 your best blog year yet

• Be open-minded. Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results will not work. To grow you’ve got to change your attitude towards blogging.

• Get a professional mindset. If you have serious goals with your blogging, you must be serious about your blog. Choose a domain name for your blog, have a nice design.

• Start publishing regular content. Create a schedule and stick to it – i.e. two posts per week. Fresh content gives life to your blog.

• Focus your content. Identify your target group and what you want them to achieve by interacting with your blog. Then focus all your content on them and that goal.

• Focus the front page and navigation. The content you focus on shouldn’t be hard to find for your first time visitors. Use static landing pages, sticky posts and link to landing pages from your navigation.

• Personalize. Show your face, create videos, put yourself into your blog – your personality makes your blog stand out.

• Share insights. Too many bloggers just share things that are already out there, you need to add value in your content.

• Get inspired. Subscribe to what interests you and read a lot. Figure out what they do that makes you excited about them and incorporate that into your own work.

• Plug yourself. You must actively promote your work wherever you can. Reach out and connect to new people daily and turn them into blog visitors. Read:how to get 500 blog visitors.

• Analyse the stats. Use software like Google Analytics to analyse the stats. Then do more of the things that work, and eliminate the things that don’t.

• Think business. Find ways to turn visitors and the time you spend on your blog into an income. Consider affiliate deals, own products, advertising. Read: earn $500 in blog revenue.

• Never give up. Blogging is about performing consistently day in and day out and taking small steps over a longer period of time.

Here’s to 2012 – make it your best blogging year yet!

24 Most Downloaded Free WordPress Themes Ever

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms. The great thing about it are all the free WordPress themes.

The more than 1,400 free themes available have been downloaded 39,000,000 times total. Following is the list of the most downloaded free WordPress themes ever.

Best free WordPress themes

• Atahualpa – Fixed or flexible width layout, 0-4 sidebars, custom widget areas, import/export styles, color pickers, over 200 options. Downloads 864,914

• LightWord - Clever theme with two or three columns, Adsense support, fixed-width, widget-ready and threaded comments. Downloads 578,804

• iNove - Inspired by MacZone. Very stylish, widget supported and doesn’t require any plugin. Downloads 572,820

• Suffusion - An elegant, versatile and browser-safe theme with a power-packed set of options. Downloads 558,403

• Mystique - Extensive customization trough the dashboard and features available in the ATOM-powered version. Downloads 552,135

• Thematic – 13 widget-ready areas, drop-down menus, grid-based layout samples, plugin integration, shortcodes and more. Downloads 499,479

• Pixel – 2-3 column layout, dropdown categories menu, multiple widget-ready placement and Feedburner email form integrated. Downloads 458,641

• Platform - A drag-and-drop theme-design framework. Downloads 403,016

• Twenty Ten - Stylish, customizable, simple, and readable — make it yours with a custom menu, header image, and background. Downloads 395,122

• Constructor - Create unique blog design quickly and effortlessly (many layouts, configured colors, custom fonts and slideshow). Downloads 364,223

• Delicate - Professional theme built on the NattyWP CMS framework. Downloads 354,276

• zBench - A simple theme without any plugin needed, little images, custom-menu, widgets, threaded-comments. Downloads 352,398

• Graphene - A stylish, neat, and tight theme supporting configurable columns layout options and 4 widget areas. Downloads 337,919

• Twenty Eleven - Custom menu, header image, and background. Light or dark color scheme, custom link colors and layout choices. Downloads 326,704

• Fusion - Light and clean theme from digitalnature. Localization support and theme options available. Downloads 305,883

• Motion – Drop-down categories menu, 2-column layout and widget-ready footer and sidebar. Downloads 298,608

• Magazine Basic – Site width, widgetized sidebars, header logo, multiple front page grid layouts, pagination and drop-down menus. Downloads 296,180

• P2 - A group blog theme for short update messages, inspired by Twitter. Downloads 269,019

• Sliding Door - A unique template featuring sliding images in the header. Downloads 264,786

• Arjuna X - Stands for elegance, accessibility, and attention to detail. Downloads 256,567

• AutoFocus - Specifically for photographers looking for a simple and elegant way to display their work online. Downloads 247,506

• Elegant Grunge - Feature footer, styled image frames, page template with uniquely configurable sidebar and a photoblog tag page. Downloads 245,689

• Hybrid - Features 15 custom page templates and multiple widget-ready areas. Downloads 219,353

• Adventure Journal - Header / background art, 1-3 column layout, a custom stylesheet, unique sidebars for pages and posts. Downloads 205,228

Start your own WordPress blog

I hope this list got you inspired to start your own WordPress blog. This is a video I made to show you how easy it is to start a blog.

You can have your blog online without any tech know-how within minutes - click here to get started now.

Why you should consider a premium design for your blog

The look and feel of your blog is easy to setup and switch with WordPress. There are thousands of design themes available both free and paid.

These are some things to consider when choosing your blog theme design:

• Number and order of columns
• Colour scheme
• Fonts
• Header options

Free vs. paid blog themes

Free themes are great and are the best place to start for a new blogger. Check out the most downloadable free WordPress themes.

When you need to get your blog on another level it is best to go for a premium theme. Premium themes are constantly developed and have the full support. When there is a WordPress upgrade the theme is compatible and is functioning correctly. Same is not always the case with the free themes.

Another important factor is flexibility. Premium themes are very customisable. They allow you to change columns, sidebars, fonts, colours, header and many other design elements without needing to know CSS or coding. With a premium theme you have the full control of the look of your blog.

I use premium Thesis Theme

I personally use a premium theme called Thesis for this blog and most of my other projects. Thesis Theme is very user friendly. It makes it easy for anyone to customise a blog.

It gives my blog a professional look, a clean and easy-to-read layout and  it is optimised for search engines. Here is my quick video on how Thesis works:

Thesis Theme costs $87 and you get free upgrades for life with your purchase. It is worth the money as you get a professional looking blog for a fraction of the cost of getting a custom made design.

How Google Analytics help grow your blog

One of the first things I do behind-the-scenes after starting a new blog is to setup an analytic tool to help me keep track, monitor and measure visitors to the blog. It is important to make sense of the visitor data so you can identify the best strategies and put them in place.

My favourite tool for this is Google Analytics. It is amazing and it is free. Google Analytics just got dramatically improved and real-time stats monitoring has been introduced, so it was about time for me to show you how I use Google Analytics to grow my blog.

You need a Google account to sign up for Google Analytics. It is a very quick process to setup your website in Google Analytics. Google Analytics for WordPress is the easy way to integrate Google Analytics onto your blog.

What blog metrics are important?

In Visitors I look at the overview of visitors to my blog. I place emphasis on the number of unique visitors, number of pages people look at per visit and the amount of time people spend on site. I aim to have 2+ pages per visit and 1.30+ minutes spent on site per visit.

Tip: You can install mobile app like Simple Analytics Widget on Android for quick overview on your phone home screen

In Visitors – Demographics you can see the geographical breakdown of your visitors. This may be important if your blog focuses on some specific demographics. My blog is born global so I like traffic from anywhere.

In Visitors – Behaviour look at the percentage of new visitors vs returning visitors. My blog has a large number of new visitors from search engines with different “make a blog” keyword phrases so I tend to focus most of the front page and content on this target demographic.

In Visitors – Technology take a look at browsers your visitors use. Make sure to test that your blog looks and functions properly in the browsers that most of your visitors use.

In Visitors – Mobile you can see how many of your visitors surf with mobile devices. In my case it is around 5%. In case your blog gets a lot of mobile visitors it is advisable to get a mobile blog design.

In Traffic Sources I look at where the visitors are coming from. I find answers to questions like are my blog posts keywords optimized for SEO, what keyword phrases people type to find my blog and what blog posts rank well in search engines.

Tip: Limit the time you spend on analytics. Focus on important tasks like writing blog posts and promoting your blog.

In Content I see which blog posts and pages get the most traffic. I also see individual breakdown over how interesting my posts are i.e. how long time people spend on them. Analyse which posts are more sticky and try to replicate the features of those posts in the posts you will be writing in the future.

For a bit more advanced analytics, dig deeper into Content – In-Page Analytics. This actually shows you which links on your site visitors are clicking on and calculates the percentages of clicks on different parts of the site. For example in my case on the front page of my blog some 70% of clicks happen around the header / navigation area.

Time for you to take action

Time for you to take some action, review your analytics and see what they teach you about your content and visitors.

Which Google Analytics metrics do you focus on and why?

How to get more likes on Facebook

We all know the importance of Facebook and the value of having a Facebook page for your blog.

However, many make the mistake of creating a Facebook page for their business or blog in hopes of it getting likes, thinking that people will come on their own. But it takes a lot for someone to actually like a page.

Think about it… Do you go about liking everything that advertises for their Facebook page? I didn’t think so.

You need to feel and see the value before you decide to include a specific page on your Facebook profile. Here are 7 tips on how to get more likes on Facebook.

• Add value to your users’ experience – in order to get and keep your readers interested you need to add value to your Facebook page. Use your page to provide tips and tricks, additional information and pictures, involve the readers in your process by asking questions and so on. Depending on what your product or blog is about, you can come up with different initiatives to make the page fun for your readers.

• Be interactive – Talk to your users and make sure you’re not distancing yourself from them. Reply to their questions, ’like’ their answers and start fun discussions.

• Be natural – Facebook is, for the most part, a fun and relaxed platform, so write in spoken language. Always consider your audience, but don’t take yourself too seriously and don’t be too formal.

• Drop the sales pitch – If you’re starting your Facebook page only to promote your products or blog, don’t waste your time. Pages that are only updated when it’s time to promote something do not add value to the readers in any way. Make sure to give, before you can take. Consider your Facebook page as a place where you build relationships with your audience.

• Find your audience – Interact not only with your audience, but also your competition. Make sure you’re using your Facebook account as your page and not your private account and start participating in discussions on other Facebook pages that you know consist of your audience. Don’t be a spammer and leave valuable comments. ’Like’ some of the other comments people have left on the competitive page. If they need an answer and haven’t gotten one, help them, if you can. However, it’s important to remember not to leave your links here and there – that will be considered spam.

• Create exclusive giveaways/competitions for your Facebook readers.

• Make sure you’re interacting on a regular basis. It sends the wrong message to a person who reads your blog and makes way to your Facebook page to find that it hasn’t been updated in the last month! Spend 5-10 minutes a day on your Facebook page, rather than procrastinating on your personal Facebook profile and you’ll soon see results!

• Place a custom made link at the end of each post that will lead the reader to your Facebook page. Integrate a few words at the end of each post telling the reader to ’’join lots of other readers on Facebook for more information…’’ – You can see how I do it on my fashion blog.

Making the people who already like your page happy will make them comment, like and share, which will result in them spreading your page to more of their friends. Now, all there’s left to do is to like HowToMakeMyBlog on Facebook!

Milana Saric is a lifestyle blogger who writes about food recipes and fashion and style advice. Make sure to check out her post on how to start a fashion blog!

How To Install WordPress 3.3 – Step-By-Step Guide

WordPress is free, open-source blogging software that you use with your own domain name.

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform – it powers more than 50 million blogs. All of my projects are run on it.

This is my step-by-step guide on how to install WordPress and start your own blog. It’s easy to follow and doesn’t require much technology know-how.

Install WordPress – it takes 5 minutes

WordPress must be installed on a web hosting server. For the simplest possible install, I recommend using Bluehost as you simply click on a button to install WordPress and get domain and hosting at a very cheap price.

It literally takes 5 minutes to have your blog up and running, no tech knowledge needed. Watch my video for step-by-step guide on how to install WordPress and click here to get your blog started.

Also WordPress recommends Bluehost for blog hosting. Bluehost offers one-click WordPress installation, unlimited hosting space, free domain name and a 99% uptime guarantee.

This is the easy and recommended way of installing WordPress and having a blog ready in 5 minutes. If you prefer to install your blog manually, please follow the process below:

The manual WordPress install

Get domain name and hosting

• First step to is to get a domain name and hosting.
• Bluehost offers free domain as long as you buy hosting.

Setup your hosting account

• Login to your hosting account
• Click on Hosting and chose My Hosting Account
• Find your hosting plan and click on Setup Account
• Select the checkbox and click Next
• Chose username and password and click Next
• Chose Select a domain from this account, find the domain and click Submit

Get your FTP Account Information

• You will get an email titled “Hosting Account Setup”
• Find your “FTP Account Information” in the email

Hosting/FTP User Name: your username
Web Site URL: your domain URL
FTP Site URL: your FTP URL
Your Web Site Visitor Statistics: Your stats URL

Create MySQL database

• Click on Hosting and chose My Hosting Account
• Find your domain name and click on Manage Account
• Click on Databases, chose MySQL and click Create Database
• Write description, chose username and password
• Click OK and wait until your MySQL is setup

Click on the pencil to “Edit/view details” and save the following:

MySQL Database Information Status:
Setup Host Name: your host name
Database Name: database name you have chosen
Database Version: 4.1
Description: description you have chosen
User Name: username you have chosen

Installing WordPress files

• To install WordPress, go to WordPress.org and download the latest version
• WordPress 3.3 comes in a .zip file so unzip it
• In WordPress folder rename wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php

Open wp-config.php in text editor and find this part:

// ** MySQL settings – You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database */
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere‘);
/** MySQL database username */
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘usernamehere‘);
/** MySQL database password */
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpasswordhere‘);
/** MySQL hostname */
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost‘);

Take MySQL Database info and insert in places marked in bold:

• Your MySQL Database Name should replace putyourdbnamehere
• Your MySQL User Name should replace usernamehere
• Your MySQL password should replace yourpasswordhere
• Your MySQL Host Name should replace localhost

Now find following in your wp-config.php:

define(‘AUTH_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); define(‘SECURE_AUTH_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); define(‘LOGGED_IN_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); define(‘NONCE_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’);

Visit secret key, copy the details, insert them and save wp-config.php

Login to your web hosting

• Open FTP client and log in to your hosting using the FTP account logins
• Place all the files from your WordPress folder onto your server
• Go to http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php

This is what you will see when you enter the address:

• Fill in your Blog Title and Your E-mail
• Click on Install WordPress
• Next screen says Success! and has your Username and Password.
• Click on Log In to log in to WordPress dashboard.

Your blog is now setup and is live online. You will get an email titled New Blogwhich includes your URL and your username / password. That’s it, it’s that simple to install WordPress. Get your blog started now and enjoy!