How to Start a Blog

Tell me if it's just me, but I really dislike blogs which drag on and beat around the bush, trying to extend their word count and taking forever to get to the point. Therefore, I'm here to give you a clear(as possible) and concise(as possible) breakdown of how I started a blog and how you can too!

Pick a niche

The internet is massive, you could literally start a blog about anything and everything under the sun(as long as it interests you). Picking a topic to write about is probably the single most important thing you need to do before starting on your blog. 

Here are some examples 

-  Make Money Online(what I chose)

-  Pets, animals

-  Music

-  Dance

-  Technology 

-  Sports

-  Video Games

-  Food
-  Travel

*For broader topics, you may want to focus on specific genres and then branch out to other genres

Pick a platform

After you've thought long and hard about your niche, it's time to choose a platform that you would like to blog on. Here's a few of the more popular platforms and my opinions on them.

-  Blogger(what I'm using)

-  Wordpress.com/Wordpress.org(there's a difference!)

-  Tumblr

-  Medium

 Put simply, the difference between Worpress.com and Wordpress.org is that '.com' has a more 'done for you' user interface and more guidance(but you'll have to pay more), while '.org' is more 'do it yourself' and hence you can get most of the features for free. 

But, all in all, my favorite platform to blog on is Blogger. This is because it's the cheapest and easiest platform to start blogging on.

Pick a Domain and Web Hosting Service

The next step would be to decide on which Web Hosting Service Provider you like. There are quite a few out there, but the most reputable ones that I have used and would recommend are Hostgator and Bluehost. The two companies are pretty competitive in their prices, but I would be lying if I said I don't have a slight bias towards Hostgator. A majority of my own websites are using or have used Hostgator, and I would confidently say that they are my go-to Web Hosting Service Provider. 

Web Hosting Services essentially make sure that your website remains up and running and also protects it from any cyber attacks. When you've clicked on a link to sign up for either Bluehost(here) or Hostgator(here). They will allow you to get a domain of your choice for free!(It's usually recommended to get a '.com' domain) After getting the domain simply pay them to host your website and voila, you've got yourself a brand new website!

Link your website

You're almost there! Now, all you have to do is take that domain that you bought say for example 'jingruieatsgrass.com' and add it to the 'domains' section of your blog. After that, refresh your page and you should see your amazing domain at the top of the page!

Start blogging your heart out

Finally, the moment you've been waiting for. Find somewhere nice and quiet(or noisy, whatever floats your boat) and blog till your heart's content! Do keep in mind that in order to make back the investment that you've put into creating your blog, you will have to blog consistently(once or twice a week should be the goal). Eventually, you'll build up an audience you can monetize and start making some internet money!

Additional Resources

If you're looking to spice up your page without spending too much money, I'm aware that Wordpress has a theme library called Wordpress Themes and Blogger has a theme library called Btemplates. Simply go to the website corresponding to the platform you chose and download a theme you like. Afterwards, you just have to upload it through the 'themes' section of your page, 

There's my take on creating a blog. I understand that I may have missed out some stuff so please do feel free to contact me at 'jingrui.wu.2002@gmail.com' and let me know what else I should add. Also, if you've enjoyed this blog, you can continue to follow me on this website where I share about new ways and means I've learnt to make money online, on my quest to become a millionaire in the next 10 years.

A Beginner's Guide to Traffic Sources in 2020

Whatever online or offline business you're running, you need traffic. Traffic has a direct relationship with sales, which is why the top websites and content creators are making millions and millions of dollars. Hence here are a few places you can get your traffic from!

Traffic can be categorized into 2 different types: Paid traffic and Free traffic. I will be covering both of them, and will be talking about more modern forms of acquiring traffic(not about printing and handing out posters).

Paid traffic

Paid traffic is usually obtained through a bigger, more popular party. Essentially, by paying these parties a certain amount of money, they will funnel some of their own traffic to you, allowing you to tap onto their fame to build your own audience.

Social Media Ads

Social Media is the largest market for paid traffic, which is why it is also the most expensive. First of all, it is important to understand how social media paid advertising works. 

Advertisers like you and me(and big corporations) firstly pick an audience they would like to target on platforms like Google or Facebook. They then enter a bid war with other advertisers, fighting to see who receives the spot on the consumer's feed or search results. Of course, the spot would go to the highest bidder, who will then be able to display their ad to the consumer.

Sometimes, advertisers go directly to influencers on the platform and ask them to promote their products through a post or a story. I would not recommend this as it is not fully utilizing the capabilities of social media ads.

Because social media platforms give advertisers the option to target specific demographics, interest groups and people, advertisers don't mind paying a little extra to get 'higher quality leads', as they have a higher chance of turning these leads into customers. 

Here are a few platforms which are commonly used by advertisers to reach out to consumers

- Google Ads

- Facebook Ads

- Instagram Ads(can also be accessed through Facebook Ads)

- Youtube Ads(can also be accessed through Google Ads)

- Pinterest Ads

- LinkedIn Ads

- Twitter Ads

- Microsoft Ads(aka Bing Ads)

Solo Ads

Solo ads are a lot less popular as compared to social media ads(and hence a lot cheaper.). They also work quite differently. Unlike social media ads, traffic from solo ads does not come directly from the platform. The platform usually acts as an exchange on which buyers and sellers can communicate and come to a consensus. The seller would usually then send an email with a link you provide to their email lists, and you will be charged per click you receive. 

Solo ads can target niches but not demographics or interests. Advertisers would usually provide a link which brings potential customers to a squeeze page(a page which collects emails) and build their own email lists. The marketers can then send offers or products to said email list to make sales and commissions from their list of people interested in a specific niche.

After trying out some solo ads for myself, I found that the traffic actually converts pretty well, if you find the right seller. There are also standalone websites which sell solo ads but I would strongly advise against that as they are likely there to scam your money, offering you cheap and useless traffic. Speaking of which, be sure to use a tracking platform like ClickMagick to ensure that all click received are legitimate(You can usually go back to the seller and ask for more clicks if there are faulty/low quality clicks found).

I was only able to find one reliable solo ads website - Udimi(which I have tried and tested myself). I would advise staying away from other solo ads platforms unless you know for sure that they're not there to scam you. 

Native/Pop-up Ads

Treated like the unwanted little brother of paid advertising. I say that because this form of traffic is usually known for being low-quality and low-converting. Native/pop-up ads are the ads that you see on news/blog sites, fan pages(or random websites), online stores, and much, much more. Native ads are the ones that are usually related to the article and are put at the end to 'blend in' with the rest of  the page.

I haven't explored many native/pop-up ads platforms and from my experience, they are not that effective anyways. Although if you would still like to try it out, here are some of the more reputable platforms to buy native/pop-up ads
- Bidvertiser
- Propeller Ads
- Google Adsense

Free Traffic(Organic Traffic)

When trying to obtain free traffic, advertisers have to play a completely different game. Free traffic is most of the time, if not always built up over time. It isn't easy to get free traffic and it's practically impossible to get free traffic by just snapping your fingers(you can get instant traffic only through paid ads).  It works kinda like fishing, you drop the bait and wait(extremely patiently) for the fish to start coming in(I don't fish much so I apologize if the analogy is inaccurate). When your traffic starts to rack up, your audience will begin to grow exponentially(due to the sharing etc.) and you will have yourself free traffic. 

Social Media Posts

I'm sure we've all seen models promoting brands that sell jewelry, clothes, or their own products. Advertisers approach these models and 'theme pages' and ask them to help to promote said products, jewelry and clothes. But the question is, how do influencers and 'theme pages' do it? How do they grow their  follower counts to hundreds of thousands or even millions. 

The secret: Hitting the explore page. I don't have sufficient knowledge about other platforms to comment about them, but I know for a fact that it is extremely easy to grow a page on instagram. One simply searches for pictures which do well on pages(in the same niche as yours), and re-posts those pictures, issuing credit of course. You can then inject some of your own content and gradually build that audience to a point where you can monetize it. 

SEO(Search Engine Optimization)

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the ranking of websites based on relevance to the search term. It is usually used to refer to websites on Google but can also used for any platform with a search option. SEO is a highly sought after skill which I have not mastered yet. 

SEO helps drive organic traffic to your website for obvious reasons. The higher your website ranks, the more people see it, the more people see it, the more click you'll get. The truth is, no one ever looks at the second page, let alone the third page of Google's search results. Hence, ranking at the top of the page for search terms is quite essential. 

SEO uses an extremely complicated algorithm to calculate how well your website fits the search term. This is why for more advanced SEO, people use backlinks and other techniques to keep the website competitive enough to stay on the first page.

As mentioned, I do not have a lot of experience with this and hence feel that I may not be fit to offer any advice. However, you can check out videos on Youtube(I've seen many but have not dug deep enough) to learn some SEO for yourself. You could also get an expert to help you rank at the top of Google(but this might classify as 'paid traffic'). 

That's my take on existing traffic sources! I know that there are other sources like safelists but I feel those are pretty difficult to monetize since you're trying to sell to other marketers. If you have any questions or have anything to add or think I'm missing, feel free to shoot me an email at jingrui.wu.2002@gmail.com. If  you enjoyed my article or are interested in joining me on my journey to become a millionaire. 

An Alternative to Clickfunnels

I've shared about some websites entrepreneurs can use to create their own website. Having your own website can help you generate sales, but there are other platforms which help you to increase and optimize for sales!
Here are some other platforms that can help you expand your business.

Clickfunnels

Clickfunnels is a funnel building website founded by Russell Brunsson. It essentially helps entrepreneurs and business owners build funnels to help them optimize and '10x' their sales. It also helps you create 'one page websites', 'squeeze pages', up-sell pages, cross-sell pages and much more! These pages will help you to boost your business' conversions and make significantly more money!


Clickfunnels also has courses and referral programs for affiliate marketers to utilize and have an additional source of income.

It's cheapest subscription plan goes for $97 a month and $297 a month for their autoresponder add on, but there is a 14 day free trial you can get here.(I would like to say that I no longer use Clickfunnels as it is simply too expensive. The link goes directly to their official website and I do not receive any commissions.)

Builderall

Buiderall is essentially exactly the same as Clickfunnels. It helps you create everything that Clickfunnels can, from squeeze pages to sales funnels, for a fraction of the price. They also have pre-made funnels/systems which you can utilize for your own businesses or marketing. On top of that, they have an email autoresponder and a free plan of up to 100 subscribers!

However, I do not believe they offer any courses. They have a 14-day free trial and thereafter you can choose from one of their plans. Check out their plans here.

As mentioned, Builderall doesn't have courses for affiliate marketing (all that can be learnt online for free anyway). They do however have videos which guide you through their interface, making it extremely easy to use.

Final thoughts

I might be a little biased when I say this, but I would prefer Builderall, simply because it's cheaper. Having to spend less means you get to keep more. Builderall may not be as popular, but it's interface is as simple to use as Clickfunnels. Furthermore, Builderall has a free affiliate program(up to 100 subscribers)which trumps having to pay $97 a month without any guarantee of income. 

How to Start a Website

We live in a(society) digital age, where every man, woman and child has an electronic device and an internet connection of some sort, it is inevitable for businesses or entrepreneurs to have a website or an online presence in order to reach out to their customers and clients and to build new connections all over the world. On top of that, it's pretty impressive to own a website, because people have no idea how easy it actually is to create one.

Find a Platform

A platform would basically do all the heavy lifting for you. They have pre-made templates you can apply to your own website in a few clicks. I'm sure you've heard of Wix and Squarespace(if you haven't just watch a video on Youtube it's literally everywhere). These platforms are great for you to create a personalized website to act as a sort of resume for employers or clients to look at before employing your services. 

However, if you would like to start an E-Commerce website, here are a few more suggestions(you could do it with Wix and Squarespace too but the platforms I'm about to recommend are centered around E-Commerce). Some examples are Shopify and Woocommerce(an integration with Wordpress). 

Other than the platforms mentioned, there are also platforms that help you to start your own blog. For example, Blogger, Medium and Wordpress(Wordpress is extremely helpful due to it's abundance of plugins).  Check out how to start a blog here!

Get a Domain

Once you've chosen a platform, you'll need to get a domain. Most of the platforms will guide you through getting one. However, there are usually cheaper alternatives like GoDaddy or Gsuite to get your domains from. Getting a '.com' domain is definitely recommended and would seem the most credible, but using the free domains from the platforms before getting some revenue wouldn't be the worst idea either.

After you've gotten your domain, you're gonna need a hosting platform to help everything run smoothly. I would recommend HostGator or BlueHost to host your website with to get premium support and help at any time.

Enjoy!

Congrats! You can now sell or share whatever you want on a website you can call your own. Customize and try out their tools and services and contact their support(they're always there to help)if you ever need anything. Look here for some additional sources to help you boost and increase your sales!

Businesses You Could Start During the Quarantine

The covid-19 situation doesn't seem to be improving and most countries are still in lockdown or quarantine. It's bad, but it's a better time than ever to start a business as companies and governments are trying to subsidize and help businesses, new and old. Therefore, here's an article which acts as a sort of part two of the previous article. Here are some businesses anyone with a computer and an internet connection can start during the quarantine.

1. E-Commerce

E-Commerce sales added up to a whopping USD$3.53 trillion(that's equivalent to everyone in the entire world spending approximately $500 EACH) in 2019 and are expected to grow to USD$6.54 trillion in 2022. Knowing that, grabbing a(very, very) small piece of that pie would already make us millionaires. 

In the age of information and technology, more and more millionaires are being made each and every day. By learning some skills(like those from the previous article) and applying them to creating and running an E-Commerce store of your own. E-Commerce stores can be created with a variety of platforms like Shopify, Woocommerce and many more which allow you to build your very own E-Commerce store within minutes. You could also work with the biggest E-Commerce platform in the world, Amazon, which has made many millionaires through their 'Fulfilled By Amazon(FBA)' program. FBA works by letting entrepreneurs ship in products which they think sell well into Amazon warehouses, and Amazon does the rest, giving you a cut.

2. Agencies

After learning either copywriting or social media marketing, you can then proceed to use your skills to create an agency. Creating a copywriting agency or social media marketing agency(SMMA) on your own is incredibly difficult because you will need to get your own paying clients. This is usually done through cold calling or cold messaging, but of course there are many other ways to get clients. 

When starting an agency, is crucial to place importance on sales(or getting clients). I like to say that customers are the blood of the company and I stand by that. The more clients you can get and keep in an agency, the more you will make.