Making money online is very possible.
My opinion the answer to making money online is not through MLM companies, not using surveys, data entry jobs or dropshipping – it’s using affiliate marketing.
In the information age, we are able to use a laptop, an internet connection, throw a blog online and start making money from anywhere in the world.
Though there are more specifics to the above statement, making money online with blogging isn’t as complicated as you may think, and it’s very possible to leave that hated office job for an exciting career based at home.
Making money online by blogging begins with a website. Without a website, it’s going to be difficult to create a blog or make money online.
One of the tools that I recommend for blogging is WordPress.
WordPress is a blogging platform which I’ve been using for years. It is easy to learn and powerful on so many levels.
In this post, I wanted to give you some reasons why you should be using WordPress for your blog and if you’re not – change today!
WordPress and Google are Besties
The most compelling reason for you to be using WordPress for your blog is that Google loves WordPress.
There are many reasons why Google ranks WordPress sites so high. One reason is content optimization. The business of Google is to get those using their search engine the best answers possible.
Answers equal content.
WordPress delivers content well. Content has always been the focus in its development and continues to lead the way in making it easy for great content to be the star.
Also, the clean code of WordPress and the relationship that they’ve had over the years have helped. Why reinvent the wheel? Use the resources available to you that work.
WordPress is Mobile-Friendly
90% of the websites online using the WordPress platform is mobile-friendly.
This is huge! The reason why so many websites using WordPress are so mobile-friendly is because it’s easy to do so.
Almost all themes are mobile friendly now, and it’s just as easy to install a plug-in that will convert your website over to a mobile-ready format.
Why build two websites? Why not just build one with the ability to be mobile-friendly right from the beginning. It’s called the principle of “one stone and two birds.” We don’t want to work harder, we want to work smarter! Right?
It’s Easy to Dress It Up
Because WordPress is so popular today, there are so many third-party companies building awesome themes designed for WordPress.
You can get (literally) thousands of themes to make your website look professional.
This is ground breaking.
The day of knowing HTML to build a website is over.
With only a couple of clicks, you can have an incredible website online, and best of all, it’s going to look good.
With WordPress, you can change the theme (easily) as design styles change and never lose your core data.
A couple of websites that I use for my themes are themeforest.net and studiopress.com.
Again, there are thousands of options available to you.
Plugins Can Fix Customization Limitations
One frustration in building a website without knowing any coding is that you can’t make customizations to your site.
When you’re looking for a small change to a theme to meet a need in your business or niche, it’s frustrating not to be able to make those changes yourself.
Hiring a freelancer can cost a lot of money.
In WordPress, installing plugins make these changes possible.
I have never had a change that I needed or wanted on a website that I couldn’t use a plugin to do the job.
Many plugins are also free. The business model of most plugin is offering a free version to a plugin and then also offering a premium version. Most of the time, the free version will be enough.
There are great plugins for menu customizations, SEO, lead acquisitions, graphics, widgets, and so much more.
WordPress is Proven To Be Flexible
When WordPress was created on May 27, 2003, it was initially designed to be a platform for bloggers.
It flourished as a bloggers platform, but today it’s used for so much more. Now, 31% of all websites on the internet use WordPress.
This stat is growing every day!
Most businesses use the power of WordPress for their website, and with WooCommerce, many e-commerce businesses are transitioning to WordPress as well.
WordPress is extremely versatile.
This is why everyone should be using WordPress for their online business or any website that they build.
Learn the “ins and outs” of WordPress so that you’re comfortable using it.
It’s so flexible that it will be the only website platform that you’ll need to master in web design. You’ll be able to create many different types of websites by knowing all about WordPress.
Several people have started a design business by building websites for companies or individuals using WordPress. Once you master the software, you’re able to create a site rather quickly.
WordPress is Free
WordPress is open source software. This means that it can be used as many times as you want without paying a dime.
Open source software uses multiple developers making various contributions to make the software better and more powerful.
You may be asking, Why is it Free? How do they make money?
The way that most open source software makes money is by other products and services offered with regards to the free software.
An example of one of these services would be WordPress.com.
WordPress.com is a hosting service called “Automattic Inc.” started by one of WordPress’s leading developers Matt Mullenweg.
On WordPress.com, you can choose from different hosting packages to host your WordPress website.
For as much as $33 a month or as little as $0 a month, WordPress.com offers your business all of the site hosting essentials, so that you’re able to build a robust online presence.
The problem with WordPress.com is that many of the customization plugins that we talked about earlier, won’t work with WordPress.com. Also, for WordPress hosting (their top package at $33 a month) it is a little on the pricey side. You may want to check out Wealthy Affiliate which is what I use for my WordPress hosting. The great thing about Wealthy Affiliate is that you get far more than just hosting (Though they do have excellent hosting included in membership). You awesome training that teaches you how to build a niche website and monetize it.
Here’s an important note.
Most people get WordPress.org (Which is the website that you can download the latest version of the WordPress Platform for your website), and WordPress.com (which is a hosting service which you can pay a monthly fee to host your WordPress site) confused. WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two distinct entities. WordPress.com is a service that uses the free WordPress platform.
There are hundreds of services and products that are available because of the WordPress Platform.
In fact, if WordPress ceased to exist today, there would be a lot of people out of work tomorrow.
Remember Matt Mullenweg? In 2015 he acquired WooCommerce for 30 Million Dollars (in cash), an add-on for WordPress to convert your WordPress website into an e-commerce store.
WooCommerce is a multi-million dollar company today and has users all over the world.
The fact that WordPress is free is one of the reasons why I love it. Because there is no charge, this allows me to add it to all of the websites that I build.
WordPress is Evolving
Have you ever heard this . . .
“Yeah, but you get what you pay for!”
It’s true that free doesn’t always give you the best value. This isn’t the case with WordPress.
WordPress is always evolving into a stronger more advanced platform.
There’re always making good advancements to improve its function, and it’s security.
Typically, I see several updates a month on WordPress.
We all know how fast technology changes. It’s good to know that my website’s core will always be up to date.
The new Gutenberg update for WordPress is fantastic. This brings the WordPress editor up-to-date with all the other editors available, and gives users some incredible features that are going to make their posts look pretty awesome.
This is why I urge young programmers not to create an HTML website from scratch. They may have the ability to do so, but with the changing currents of technology and the security issues that continuously arise, it’s easier and better to have the power of WordPress under the hood.
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The Basics are Basic
WordPress isn’t hard to use.
It can become difficult if you decide to dig deep into customizations, but its core is simple.
If you’re planning on building a niche website (to make money online) – WordPress will be your best friend!
With a niche site, your end goal is to create a passive income with affiliate marketing. Because of WordPress, you don’t need to worry about the development of your website, its security, and you can rest assured that the core of your site will always be up-to-date with little effort.
I know people who own niche websites and only log-in once a month to update WordPress and its plugins. WordPress helps make niche sites passive.
Again, WordPress isn’t difficult to use. Let’s take creating a post for example. Creating a post is a fundamental step in building any blogging website. How do you create blog posts in WordPress?
To create a post, click on the “posts” category on the left and click “Add New.” This brings you into the main blogging area where you can add a title, your content and a featured image. Again, it’s not rocket science.
WordPress was designed for beginners and experienced bloggers alike. There is something for everyone, and it doesn’t take long to get the hang of things.
WordPress is Stable
There is nothing more frustrating and inefficient, then continually working on your site, but never getting any content out there.
Here is another reason I love WordPress – it’s stable (unless you really screw things up – which normally isn’t WordPress’ fault).
Instead of spending hours fixing issues with your website, you can spend that time writing (which is the purpose of having a blog).
By the way, this is an important reason why you should always update to the latest version of WordPress. By upgrading your site, you get bug fixes, new features, compatibility issues, speed improvements, all with just a simple click.
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Your Time and Money are Important
To conclude this post, I wanted to bring everything that I talked about all together. WordPress is a great way to save time and money.
I’m not saying that WordPress is perfect in every way and that it never needs changes. This is not the purpose of this blog post at all.
What I am trying to say is that WordPress allows you to work on what will actually make you money – content.
With the power and availability of WordPress, you’re able to get a website online for a minimum amount of money.
Trust a platform that is proven!
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Also, the time spent to get a website online with WordPress is small (especially compared to building one from scratch with HTML). And using the resources at Wealthy Affiliate you can get a website online in under 5 minutes.
Conclusion
When I created my Website, Wealthy Affiliate taught me the “ins and outs” of using WordPress and the best practices to drive traffic to my website.
Should you use WordPress to create your blog? Absolutely.
Overall, WordPress is the best option and gives you the best features available to succeed.
You can learn more about WordPress at wordpress.org or start a FREE WordPress website at Wealthy Affiliate.