Best Blogging Platform UK

Reputation

Squarespace (full Squarespace review) is a design-focus company that gives you lots of very attractive looking premade templates.

While these can seem generic, it does give you something that looks very professional without needing to manipulate the layout extensively.

This company got a name for itself by doing a lot of affiliate marketing – popularly, it was advertised early-on on the Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) podcast. Get yourself set up without having to learn JavaScript or PHP.

Blogging With Squarespace

Squarespace is probably very ideal for blogging because of how well-designed it is and the directory of blog templates you can choose from.

We like the organisation of posts. If you don’t mind having a somewhat rigid structure that looks beautiful (not a great deal of customizability), you will potentially love this platform for blogging.

There are some question marks around the page loading speeds at the SEO may hit some hard limits when it comes to the advanced side of things, but this is a solid choice for blogging. The SEO it’s clean and easy-to-use.

Pricing and Plans

The Personal pan plan should cost you £13.50/mo (£10/mo on the annual plan). You’ll get a free SSL security certificate, analytics, apps, basic SEO and mobile optimised themes.

Whereas the Business plan will cost you £22/mo (£15/mo annual). This will give you the ability to accept donations, get 0% transaction fees on purchases made via your site, full e-commerce solutions and other premium integrations / blocks.

Make A Blog Website UK

I’m just guessing, these are the things you want-

• A fully functioning blog
• Thousands of visitors each day
• High levels of conversions (semi-passive/passive income)

#1 Web Host

First things first, you’ll want a web host nearest to your audience.

Once again, our recommendation is SiteGround, who’re very good with WordPress in particular. Also find high-level data centres located across three continents. Currently they have data centres in:

• England
• Illinois
• Iowa
• Netherlands
• Singapore

Check the location of your audience and choose one nearest to them so that your server response times optimised (meaning that your pages will load for those visitors faster).

SiteGround’s data centres use high security redundancy to shield you from data loss 24/7. They’re also environmentally friendly, with some of them using 100% carbon neutral renewable energy.

#2 Choose Your Blog Name & Niche

Before you set yourself up with a quality domain registrar.

You need to know what your company is about and the kind of content you’ll be making.

To do that, simply think about the following:

• What do you enjoy?
• Where do you see high demand & low supply?

During the week, keep a notebook with you and shut down whenever you are consuming the continuing joy and have a thought of what would be cool.

Perhaps you see somebody requesting more information on the topic, for me particular angle that the content creator hasn’t supplied.

One example could be if you enjoy watching videos about introducing Bengal cats to the home. Perhaps there’s a lot of scattered information but no single piece of wisdom of what to expect.

You might decide to create content that summarises key aspects using highly digestible whiteboard animations:

• What to expect when you first introduce the Bengal cat to your home
• PROs & CONs of having a Bengal cat in the home
• How to choose a Bengal cat for your home - and where to buy from

Notice that each video idea is specific to Bengal cats and the home. Type in these ideas to Google to see how much demand there is (if the search query pops up before you finish typing it, this is a sign that people are demanding that content).

You can verify the numbers using a free SEO tool such as UberSuggest, which is simple to use.

Using UberSuggest

The first screen will be a bar where you can type in a keyword idea. I’ve typed in “Bengal cats”, which takes you to a new overview screen.

Here, you can see the search volume, SEO difficulty, pay difficulty, and cost per click.

The lower the SEO difficulty score, the more likely it is that something like Wix, which makes website building very simple, will be appropriate for you building up your content marketing strategy.

Of course, “Bengal cats” is way too short a keyword string, which means competition will naturally be high. We want to narrow down our search query and target a much more defined market … by looking for keyword ideas. To find this, head to the left-hand menu.

You have to sign in (for free), in order to see more of the suggestions available. In this example, I’ve scrolled down to an option with a moderately low SEO difficulty score of 21 for “how much do Bengal cats cost?”

But you’ll notice that their pay difficulty score is high, at 53. The score down to another option. This one: “personality of Bengal cats” is ideal, with a very low SEO difficulty score of 7 and an even lower paid difficulty score of only 4.

You’ll also notice that there’s a variation which is roughly the same ratio of paid difficulty (although the entry prices much lower at only nine cents) and SEO score with a high search traffic volume: “personalities of Bengal cats”.

Get the idea? Here’s what you want:

• Low SEO and paid difficulties
• High search volume
• Low ‘cost per click’

In order to get organic traffic, those metrics suggest that you can more easily enter into this niche and get visibility. It’s also a good sign that something very fast to make a website with - like Wix - can compete well.

#3 Set up Your Blog

There are loads of tutorials for any of the providers listed in this guide. Note that WordPress will have a steeper learning curve and this may be extreme if you try to do something complicated.

Pro Tip

If you want to use WordPress, keep your theme and strategy simple. And if you want something very fast like Wix, keep in mind that the best chance you have of getting visibility on search engine pages (SERPs) would be if you get a great ratio of low cost per click, high search volume, and low SEO/paid difficulties.

How to Create Blog Content

Companies that white out their blog strategy double their chances of succeeding… Data from the content marketing Institute says that 60% of companies with a written content strategy get success compared to 32% who keep it only verbal.

You need to ask yourself questions about what you’re doing and why:

• Why are you making content?
• What content is key? (See the UberSuggest guide above).
• How can we make content that succeeds at hitting our goals?

Why, What and How can help you to get a 3D picture of the production / project.

Check the Target Market

As I mentioned above, you want to verify that the content ideas you have are good: first, by visiting the content you enjoy and verifying whether viewers are commenting about wanting things that you are brainstorming.

Second, using UberSuggest to verify an entry point, with defined keyword strings.

New Markets

Sometimes, you may have an idea that isn’t yet being searched for (not specifically, at least, but your idea SHOULD still involve products / personalities / topics that are in demand).

Yet, you sense it would be a big hit, perhaps because you are a fan yourself and so have an intuitive understanding of what the viewers want.

In that case, understand you’re taking a risk so try to create variations of that product and only create one instalment to test out how people respond.

If you double-down on one tactic, such as comedic animations on a subject people are interested in, you could spend months producing the content and end up having little to no success. To get around this, you make a test trial. In the production business, they call creating only one instalment a ‘pilot’ episode.

#1 AdSense

Run Google ads on your blog and it can draw in commission money.

Google AdSense is for bloggers and web publishers who want to display targeted media ads on their website pages – earning a commission each time a visitor clicks.

These are paid out via PPC (paid/cost per click) or by impressions (CPM).

#2 Split Testing

Also known as ‘A/B testing’. Essentially, you create two or more versions of the same content, and then track the different metrics of engagement from specific audiences. For instance, you might create multiple variations of an email subject line – then check how many people actually open the email from the same audience segment.

#3 Autocasting

An automated piece of processing that lets bloggers create audio versions of text blog posts using RSS feeds. You’ll still need to set up a podcast with the right podcasting host, in order to get it  online.

#4 Audioblog

This means you mainly post content made up of audio clips and voice recordings.

#5 Above the Fold

The bits of your content or webpage that show up on the visitor’s screen without them needing to scroll any further. This is generally where you can capture their attention.

#6 Affiliate

An affiliate is a blogger who creates content that incentivises visitors to choose a product, tool or service.

As a result, the affiliate marketer gets a commission of the sale. Good affiliate marketing is where the blogger has an understanding of the product or has used it themselves so knows what they’re talking about.

#7 Analytics

Also known as ‘reporting’ or ‘insights’. This data helps you evaluate the performance of your website, so you can better understand who is using your pages, how they’re using it and how you can improve content for them.

Google Analytics is the biggest name in website analytics, giving bloggers information on how much traffic is entering their blog and where from. Also see things related to Google AdSpends.

#8 Alexa Rank

You could think of this as something similar to ‘Page Authority’, which is an SEO metric letting you know how search engines value particular pages and websites related to specific search queries. 

Alexa Rank gives you a popularity score on the Internet, a measure of your estimated traffic in combination with how engaged the traffic was over the last three months. Data is coalesced from the various browsers, with bias corrections.

The lower your Alexa Rank, the better, showing that you are higher up in the overall hierarchy of global websites.

#9 Anchor Text

This is an aspect of SEO, letting Google crawl your website more effectively. This is the text that you place inside of a clickable hyperlink. For instance, in this hyperlink: the best VPN providers, the hyperlink is “best VPN”.

#10 Alt Text

Alternative text is a description that tells search engines and readers what an image is.

This is very important for helping Google to crawl your website and adds to good SEO.

Also, if the image does not load—for instance, if an email client blocks an image—this ‘alt text’ will load up in its place, letting the reader know what the image would have been.

#11 Astroturfing (SEO)

The practice of paying people to pretend to be customers or visitors to your website, in order to influence other visitors and the Google search algorithms. This isn’t a recommendable thing for you to do.

#12 BBloggers

“BBlogers” is a hashtag that’s oftentimes used by beauty bloggers so they can be quickly identified by others interested in that niche.

#13 Blogosphere

Alias for the blogging community. You could use it for the community in your specific blog or to describe all blogs.

Somebody in a blogosphere who blogs using a particularly cutting-edge attitude is sometimes called a “Blogoneer” (pioneering blogger).

#14 Backend and Frontend

This may be also spelled “back-end” / “front-end”. Front-end developers deal with things website visitors will actually see, such as the content and design layout.

Backend developers handle much of the infrastructure behind it that can’t necessarily be seen but which impacts the functionality (the deal much more with the coding side of things: HTML, CSS, PHP, etc.).

What is the Best Blogging Platform for Beginners?

For the best blogging site UK overall, we have to give this to Wix hands-down, for having the most versatility and value for money, while needing zero coding knowledge. On the technical side of things, the canvas is drag-and-drop. You don’t need a grasp of how website development works – intuitively build pages from beginning to end.

Squarespace is also known for having a single canvas that takes care of the ‘back-end’ and ‘front-end’ without needing to alternate between the two, or to handle overly technical aspects of design and layout (Squarespace is a primarily design oriented company).

While WordPress can be simple, yet have to be careful to choose a simple theme and design strategy. We recommend finding a YouTube tutorial that gives a simple blog website – something with good reviews / comments.

Do Bloggers Make Money?

Blogging isn’t a get rich quick strategy. It’s something that can grow into very stable passive or semi-passive income over the long term.

Build it from a hobby blog into a business blog. If you pay attention to SEO tactics, you can capture more and more organic traffic and dominate inside of a specific niche, earning while you sleep.

Can You Still Make a Living Blogging ?

If you’re passionate about a topic and can white well enough, blogging could be an extra source of income with unlimited upside. The truth is that most of the millions of bloggers today don’t make enough for a livelihood.

This Glassdoor pie chart for people who describe themselves as professional bloggers show that the vast majority earned under the living wage. Today, a blogger needs to pay attention to the changing landscape and be somebody who is willing to adapt constantly.

For instance, perhaps you need a way to feed in traffic to your website blog by using YouTube. While YouTube is nothing new, there are always new approaches to capturing attention with striking content. Savvy producers keep their eye on the culture and user behaviours.

• Are you producing efficiently enough? (right now I am writing this piece of content using dictation software)
• Are you producing enough volume? (people rapidly forget if you stop producing)
• Is your content good enough? (utilise: fame, sex appeal, originality, quality and pain point/relevance)

How Do Bloggers Get Paid?

#1 CPM / CPC ads

CPM ads: also known as ‘cost per 1,000 impressions’. These ads give you a set amount of money based on the number of people seeing your ad. This is how most people make money on YouTube (other than by adding extra providers like Patreon).

CPC/PPC ads: cost per click and pay per click ads. These are the same thing and mean the amount of commission you get each time a viewer clicks on an ad shown on your blog.
Google’s AdSense is probably the most popular provider for these ads. There’s no need for you to create direct contracts with advertisers, and Google selects the most relevant advertisements for your content.

#2 Sell Physical or Digital Products

This is very good for creatives and experts with in demand products that cannot be found anywhere else. This includes items such as:

• Online courses & workshops
• eBooks & physical books
• Copyrightable pieces of media like music, video and images people can purchase for their own content.
• Memberships (perhaps you’re a comic-strip creator and have a special VIP section for paying customers)

#3 Affiliate Marketing

We mentioned this in the Buying Guide. You recommend products you’ve used or understand. You could also do the same for your own product and have people advertise that on their channel.

The affiliate marketer gets a portion of the sale and the viewer gets value from the product itself. Simple.

Pro Tip

Content marketing can be viewed as building trust over time. You don’t need to sell products each time with each post… Rather, focus on creating high-value content that gives visitors with a need or want.

Over time, you’re training Google to associate your website with particular keyword strings. If you also provide products and services or affiliate marketing, a portion of those visitors will also make purchases!