This post will review some of the best WordPress Blog themes providers available today. Over the course of our website’s existence, we have had the pleasure of working with some of the best WordPress Blog themes and theme developers, so all information here is from personal experience.

There are actually 3 theme resources we will focus on, and each one excels in different ways when producing their themes. As such, we will break this article into 3 parts:

All themes listed here are premium themes. In all fairness, for the sake of such a small initial investment, the benefit of added professionalism and flexibility these themes offer, is a no brainer!

Best WordPress Blog Themes for the Beginner Blogger

We have to advocate Elegant Themes on this one. It was the first Blog theme we used and we loved it. The main reason we regard ET as providing the best WordPress Blog themes for the budding Blogger is because of their support system. When we had an issue or wanted to change the size of the logo, or move something around, we always had our questions answered quickly, and they never failed to help us accomplish what we needed to do.

In addition, each of their themes comes with an “ePanel”, which basically allows you to change certain elements of the theme at the touch of a button, such as background colors, changing the logo, managing advertisements and what I want displayed on the front page. This simple administration is one of the key factor in why we chose ET as the best WordPress Blog themes provider for beginners.

Cost was another factor, and ET wins out here. It costs just $39 to access ALL 70+ of their themes, which means if you want to switch up your theme a week or month down the road, it doesn’t cost anything extra. One important note, ET is membership driven, meaning the $39 is an annual fee – so don’t forget to cancel your membership if you no longer require access to their themes!

Best WordPress Blog Themes for the Professional Blogger

My… oh my. We have no hesitation recommending StudioPress as the world leader in professional looking Blogs. We have contemplated (and are still contemplating!) switching over to a StudioPress theme. We have worked on several Blog development projects with clients and each of the themes have several exceptional advantages for those wanting that uber professional Blog.

First, site speed is what initially caught our attention. The themes use the Genesis Framework and are highly efficiently programmed. Site opening speed is a major factor in holding your visitors attention.

The themes also come SEO optimized from a coding standpoint – using smarter design architecture making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages. The theme can also auto update to new versions, so all enhancements will be automatically applied to your site. Another key factor is WordPress security, and each theme is professionally coded by a WordPress security expert to follow all WordPress security best practices.

StudioPress themes are a little different. You actually install the Genesis Framework first, then a “Child” theme. The nice thing about this is if you want to change your theme, it only costs $29.95 as you only have to purchase the Child theme again.

Best WordPress Blog Themes for Overall Features and Choice

Our own Blog theme comes directly from the provider we rank highest for Best WordPress Blog themes when is comes to pure choice and features. That Provider is ThemeForest.

Themeforest operates a little differently from the previous 2. They are an online repository for professional Blog theme developers who submit their themes for sale within the ThemeForest market place. As such, there are over 2,000 WordPress themes available!

The great thing about ThemeForest is that there are usually tons of reviews for the decent themes, and the theme developers are active within the reviews to answer any questions or problems. Most developers also have their own forum where you can receive support if needed too, so support is generally a thumbs up for ThemeForest.

The themes we have worked with themselves are generally very high quality, with oodles of options, although some are on the tricky side, and the overwhelming number of options some offer can be quite daunting to the inexperienced WordPress user. A great many themes also come Social Media ready – they have Facebook, Twitter and other social media options built into the theme – all you need do is enter your respective URLs and you’re good to go!

Best WordPress Blog Themes Summary

Any of the above resources are a great choice for developing your Blog. Two of the most critical aspects are support and coding – and all 3 of these resources deliver. We have tried many free Blog themes and there’s nothing more frustrating than spending hours trying to figure out why a page doesn’t load properly, or why you can’t use page menus, only to find out is a failing of the theme, and being free, there is often no direct support to work through the issues.

We ourselves have had clients with such themes that we completely replaced because of such reasons. It’s true what they say, you get what you pay for, and that’s no different when it comes to the best WordPress Blog themes.

Thanks for reading!

Stephanie, 
Howtobeginawebsite.com

Keyword research is without a doubt, the single most important factor of any SEO campaign. Picking a good keyword phrase can mean the difference between generating hundreds of interested extra visitors per month and a wasted effort.

The first question on everyone’s mind is, just how do we know what a good keyword phrase is? That’s where the various keyword tools on the market come into play. The purpose of this short article is not to advertise the various keyword tools available, but to explain their purpose and functions and to give you some ideas and resources to enable you to determine the best keyword research tool for your needs.

What do Keyword Research Tools do?

Sounds like a rather silly question – they do keyword research! But let’s look more specifically into what information the tools generate:

- They build hundreds of keyword ideas around one source keyword
- They generate “long tail keywords” that are easier to get ranked for
- They show you the competition levels of each keyword phrase
- They show you monthly search volumes for each keyword phrase
- Some even tell you in pure English whether it’s a good choice or not

In short, they come up with more keyword suggestions you or I could ever think of, and give some kind of indication to how easy it will be to get ranked high in the search engines for those keywords and keyword phrases.

Note - all the keyword tools I have used require you to have a Google AdWords account (free), and uses that account to interface into the Google network to pull keyword information. The difference between the tools is what information is pulled and how it is presented to you.

Criteria for Choosing the Best Keyword Research Tool

Determining the best keyword research tool can differ person to person. For example, some people like things simple, some prefer more advanced options and granularity at the cost of a steeper learning curve. Here are several considerations I thought about when choosing a keyword tool:

- Cost – this is very dependent on the individual. There are hundreds of keyword tools to choose from and can cost from $0 to thousands per year! Generally speaking, the more mainstream keyword research tools are somewhere between $75 and $150.
- Ease of use – YouTube is your friend here! There are some very good video walkthroughs on all the major tools. Most vendors also offer a free trial period where you can test the tool out yourself before committing to a purchase.
- Effectiveness – both cost and ease of use are irrelevant if the tool does not work. Use Google to search for reviews on the various keyword tools you like the look of, find some step-by-step real world examples of the keyword tool in use.

Conclusion

When starting out in the SEO world, I used the free Google keyword suggestion tool. Indeed this tool is often better than some of the premium tools out there, and the information is pulled directly from Google (no middle man so to speak), so you can assume the information is as reliable as you can get.

I had relative success with the Google Keyword Tool, but the one downside to the Google tool is it still leaves a lot of guesswork. It wasn’t until I started using a premium keyword research tool that I started getting my articles on the front page of Google.

Thanks for reading!

Stephanie
howtobeginawebsite.com

Best Blogging Sites

Blogging is by far the most popular form of web presence today. An issue many new bloggers face is choosing the right platform to match their needs. There are 2 very distinct types of blogging sites - the one’s you host yourself and pay a hosting fee for (such as this one), and the free best blogging sites.

I wanted to put a list together for you guys of the five most popular free blogging sites and comment on what is good and bad about them to hopefully help those who are looking to setup a free blogging site.

Top 5 Best Free Blogging Sites

Best Blogging Sites #1 - Blogger

   

 

Google’s free blogging site, Blogger is the choice of many who are starting out in the blogosphere. Its clean interface makes it a big hit with those who are focused on writing posts. This feature is what makes Blogger one of the best blogging sites.

Blogger offers the user an array of attractive templates during the sign-up process and provides a drag-and-drop tool to move elements around the sidebar. Widgets to add followers and keep track of stats are handy and useful for those who do not want to touch code. Settings are clear and easy to find, and the writing area is large and free of distractions. A custom domain name may be added at no extra charge.

The major disadvantage to Blogger is the lack of direct connection to social media. Each post must be manually tweeted and added to Facebook, which could be tiresome for those who post a lot.

Best Blogging Sites #2 - WordPress

 

WordPress is available as a managed platform like Blogger or as a self-hosted option using a provider of the user’s choice. For example, my website uses the WordPress platform which is free, but I pay a hosting company a monthly fee so that I have more freedom and flexibility with my site’s design and features. The managed option is best for those who are new to blogging, and that is what will be outlined here.

WordPress is one of the best blogging sites because of its fast, hassle-free sign-up process. Much like Blogger, a new user can be blogging within a matter of minutes, with many beautiful themes to choose from. Where the platforms differ is in the amount of tinkering that can be done on the backend. WordPress restricts the editing of theme templates and CSS to those who pay an extra $30 per year. Custom domains add anywhere from $13 to $18 per year to the cost of the site. Some users find migrating to self-hosted WordPress to be a less expensive option.

While WordPress is not the cheapest of blogging sites around, it is a good starting point for business owners or others who wish to make a name for themselves. The platform offers excellent SEO and new sites are usually indexed within days due to WordPress’ exceptionally high Page Rank (PR9), which is why it is one of the top blogging sites.

Best Blogging Sites #3 - Tumblr

   

 

Tumblr rose from a stylish upstart to a brand name in a little over five years. It now boasts more active sites than WordPress and has attracted the likes of actors, CEOs and photographers. It is considered to be one of the best blogging sites for art and digital media.

Tumblr offers a zippy sign-up process that only requires an email address and has many gorgeous free themes. This platform’s major attraction is the post formats, which offer ease of posting links, photos, videos, chats and quotes. Tumblr is natively integrated with Twitter and Facebook, and it will automatically send updates with each new post. Users can have multiple blogs.

The only disadvantage to Tumblr is its reliability. It has suffered through lengthy downtimes and is often overcapacity, which can take it off the list of best blogging sites for some people.

Best Blogging Sites #4 - Posterous

   

 

Posterous is a hybrid between a traditional blog and Tumblr. Users can sign up with an email address and are presented with a simple blog layout that can be easily edited from the backend. It is known as one of the best blogging sites due to the ability to update from anywhere. Like Tumblr, it is well-integrated with social media.

One major con of Posterous is the lack of clarity regarding the creation of new blogs and it can be difficult to delete them later. The platform was recently acquired by Twitter and is undergoing transition.

Best Blogging Sites #5 - LiveJournal

    

 

LiveJournal is the oldest blogging platform on the web and has seen a great decline in its user base since WordPress came along. It is still considered to be one of the top starter blogging sites.

While LiveJournal is still very much in use and is more community-based than other platforms, its lack of themes and social media features as well as general clunkiness make it one of the less-desirable blogging sites. Its one strong advantage is the commenting feature is limited to community members, which reduces spam and trolling. Most new bloggers will probably want to start out with something nicer, like Blogger or Tumblr.

Best Blogging Sites Conclusion

The blogging sites highlighted above are a great starting point for anyone looking to build their first blog. One thing to remember, these sites are all free, so if you have the time, sign up for an account at each and give each one a test run!

In fact, many experienced web marketers sustain multiple blogging sites and “inter-link” them to boost their web presence in the search engines by what is known as a “Link Wheel” - but that’s a whole different topic we will leave for another day!

Starting a Website or Blog - a Q

Google Adwords Advertising

While Google Adwords advertising is not for everyone, I don’t think anyone could turn down $75 of free advertising for their site! Google offers all new clients a $75 coupon to try out their services. There’s absolutely no commitment to carry on, no automatic billing should you forget to cancel, no deposit, just good old fashioned free money :)

Google Adwords Advertising $75 Coupon

The main complaint of most people who try Google Adwords advertising is the cost. People will pay several dollars per click through for some high competition keywords, that’s like paying several dollars for one visitor! I have a technique to lower that cost. I woke up this morning, logged into my Google Adwords account and saw an average of $0.14 per click, much better :)

Lowering Google Adwords Advertising Click Through Rate

   

 

The key to lowering the cost of click throughs is with Banner advertising. While this takes a little more time to setup, you can generally hit highly competitive keywords at around 5-15% of what it would cost you for text ads. This is still the same highly targeted traffic as you would get from those text ads. I want to address two concerns you may be having right now:

• You don’t have to have a fancy expensive graphic design studio to make banners

You can download a free graphics design tool called “gimp” that you can design your banners with

• You don’t have to be a graphic design artist

I designed all my banners myself and I have zero training in any artistic discipline, it’s simply about getting your message across. My click thorough rate of 0.37%  may seem low, but considering the average banner click through rate of 0.2 - 0.3%, it’s actually pretty good! (source: Wiki Clickthrough Rate).

Optimizing Google Adwords Advertising Banner Campaigns

Here are some general tips that I have followed to get decent click through rates at a low cost per click with Google Adwords advertising.

 

Keyword Research - focus on 2-3 main keywords that are 100% related to what you want to advertise. Copy those keywords into the Google Adwords Advertising Keyword Tool to get some more keyword ideas. Try and build up 200-300 highly targeted keywords, as specific as possible to what it is you are advertising. This doesn’t have to be done all at once, but try and start with 50-100. Read my article on using the Google Keyword Tool if you are new to this.

 

Banner Design - it’s even more important to focus on your banner’s message than keyword focusing. You want visitors to click on your banner that are interested in exactly what you are advertising. For example, if I am advertising whey protein isolate, I want my banner to convey exactly that. Not whey protein, not protein, not nutritional supplements, I want people to click on my banner that are specifically looking for a whey protein isolate.

 

Bidding on keywords - Google Adwords advertising works on keyword bids. You specify the dollar amount you are willing to pay for someone to click on your banner. I generally keep the same bid for each keyword, but you can manipulate each keyword bid individually for more targeted keywords. Start off low, around 15c. If you don’t get any traffic after 24 hours, increase to 20, then 25 etc. until you get banner impression levels you are happy with.

 

Banner Population - Google Adwords advertising allows you to upload various sizes of banners - you want to upload at least one of each size! This is important. For your specific market, people might be focusing on a 728x90 size banner, maybe a 250x250? Who knows. You want to exploit the banner size that people may not be using, or not using as much. For me it was the 300x50 size banner.

Here are the Google Adwords advertising accepted banner sizes:

• 300 x 50 Mobile leaderboard
• 468 x 60 Banner
• 728 x 90 Leaderboard
• 250 x 250 Square
• 200 x 200 Small square
• 336 x 280 Large rectangle
• 300 x 250 Inline rectangle
• 120 x 600 Skyscraper
• 160 x 600 Wide skyscraper

The main key here is focus, focus, focus. Google Adwords advertising can be very successful if you generate the right type of traffic - targeted traffic. If you are general with your keywords and banners, you will get exactly that - general visitors, not specifically interested in what you are advertising!

Offsetting the Cost of Google Adwords Advertising

  

I generally offset at least 50% of my Google Adwords advertising costs with another Google product, Google AdSense. It’s basically the flip side of Google Adwords advertising, you get paid for people clicking on ads you put on your site. Also flipped is the way I show these ads, I only show text ads because I receive a lot more revenue from text ads than banners.

One word of caution, apply Google AdSense tastefully to your website. I have one ad in my side bar and one at the bottom of each article. Do not plaster them all over your website if you wish to use Google Adwords advertising - especially not on the landing page that people click through your banners to. Your banner ad will not get approved until Google deems your site suitable.

I also want to stress something else about approvals. It used to be that the folks at Google Adwords advertising would approve my ad in a matter of hours. Recently it has been 3-4 days, so be patient when submitting your ad and realize it may be several days before it goes live.

I Hope this information was helpful! See you on the Web!!

Stephanie K Tully

www.howtobeginawebsite.com