Been a week into June. Not being able to travel sucks I've not been anywhere in 2 years now thanks to the pandemic and well, the fact that we still have travel bans almost everywhere here in India, but it has definitely given me this oppurtunity to be able to create more for my lovely audience. I'm back with the freebie for this month. A beautiful, calm aesthetic. Something we all need inthese uncertain times. I hope this will make glancing at your phone an even better experience for you!
I hope you'll enjoy this freebie!
You can get your hands on this wallpaper for free. Or you can buy me a coffee and get the entire pack of matching wallpapers here. For all of your devices. If Golds and neutrals are your thing, you'll love this month's wallpapers.
OR
If you already support me on buy me a coffee (if you're a member), this set of wallpapers is free for you!As always, I hope you like the content I create for you and that it helps you. If there's anything, a tutorial, or a request you'd like me to address, get in touch with me or leave a comment below. Happy to hear from you.
IMPORTANT : These wallpapers whether the free version or the purchased set is/are only for your personal use, any commercial use is prohibited. Also, please be nice and don't claim my work as your own.
Some of you found this email confusing, and I know for sure it definitely put bloggers on the blogger platform in a panic mode the questions I've received were many, what does this email mean? How do we sort this out, what do we do, how much time do we have? And so on. Well, I've decided to answer all these questions for you to help you with this.
So what's happening to feedburner?
If you think Feedburner is dead, it's not. It's just being updated, and going into a transitioning phase as google puts it.
FeedBurner has been a part of Google for almost 14 years, and we're making several upcoming changes to support the product's next chapter. Here’s what you can expect to change and what you can do now to ensure you’re prepared. Starting in July, we are transitioning FeedBurner onto a more stable, modern infrastructure. This will keep the product up and running for all users, but it also means that we will be turning down most non-core feed management features, including email subscriptions, at that time.
Does this mean you can no longer use Feedburner to burn a feed for your blog?
The answer is no, it does not mean that. The email mentions that people will still be able to visit FeedBurner and burn new feeds, and existing feeds will still continue to function.
All existing feeds will continue to serve uninterrupted, and you can continue to create new accounts and burn new feeds. Core feed management functionality will continue to be supported, such as the ability to change the URL, source feed, title, and podcast metadata of your feed, along with basic analytics.
So what has changed?
The email mentions non-core features of the product to remain "turned down" one of the non-core features is the email that's sent out every single time to subscribers when you publish your blog posts. This feature will no longer be available or working starting July 2021.
This means you'll have a few options to choose from:
- Don't send emails about posts to subscribers anymore
- Choose another service that lets you send emails to subscribers when a new post is published
- Get started with email marketing, grow and build a list via a email marketing provider.
If you're going to stop new post emails to subscribers then that's that, and you're done. You won't need to take any action. But if you would still like to send out emails to subscribers when a new blog post is up, read on.
My List Of Feedburner Alternatives
You'll be surprised to find out that there are in fact many feedburner alternatives around. I'll be starting with my favourite first and then prioritise them according to similarity with Feedburner.
Flodesk and Follow.it
| Service | Flodesk | Follow.it |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $38/month(Get it for $19/month that's a 50% OFF forlife.) | Free basic plan, upgrades are available on paid plans. The free plan will show advertisements when emails are sent out to your list. |
| Features | Unlimited everything.And the emails you'll be able to design, whoo! It's just amazing and I 100% recommend it,no kidding.Having said that,they don't have RSS automations yet so you can not send out automatic emails to subscribers when you post a new blog post or article every single time. | You will be able to send email updates whenever you post a new post on your blog automatically. Best for those that are looking to replace Feedburner for their automatic email to subscriber functions, and it's a free alternative. |
INFO : Follow.it will show advertisements in the emails sent to subscribers if you're on the free plan. You can uppgrade to a paying one to get rid of these adverts.
Mailchimp And Mailerlite
| Service | MailChimp | Mailerlite |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free for upto 2000 contacts. | Free for upto 2000 contacts. |
| Features | Offers RSS to Mail service but you'll be charged once you reach 2000 subscribers. Apart from that it is a fully-featured list-building and nurturing email marketing platform. |
Offers RSS to Mail service. And much like MailChimp has the ability to work as an email marketing platform. In terms of cost, mailerlite is more cost effective when compared to MailChimp. I still recommend Flodesk over MailChimp and Mailerlite because of the amount of the amount of money it will save you in the long-run. |
In my opinion, if RSS automation is what you are looking for, go with follow.it but if you're looking to expand and start sending out e-blasts, newsletters and more Flodesk will be your best friend.
As MailChimp, Mailerlite and Flodesk work in the same manner, and are used for similar goals I find that having a truly unlimited plan via Flodesk is so much better, whether I have 2k subscribers or 20k I will only get charged one amount, that's not true for MailChimp and Mailerlite.
But If you're looking for something real simple, but with the ability to grow with you, then follow.it will be your best bet. It's free forever and once you upgrade, you can make it do more.
Not sure how to get any of this done?
I've got you covered. If you've got a template from me, I'm happy to help you with this. I'll take care of everything for you and set-up everything on the platform of your choice.
FeedBurner Transfer Service
I'm happy to offer all people that use my blogger themes a discounted rate for transitioning our of Feedburner into any of the platforms mentioned above. I'll make the process seamless for you so you you can focus on things that bring you joy rather than admin tasks that just threw themselves at you.
I hope this blog post has helped make things clear for you. I've written this with all my heart because I believe sharing is caring and since many of you in my blogger support Facebook group were troubled about this, I hope it helps!
If you have enjoyed the content on my blog please consider buying me a coffee. This helps us both! It unlocks exclusive content for you that is not available to anyone else, including freebies such as but not limited to:
- Blogger Tutorials
- Blogger Code snippets
- Free wallpapers every month
- Free printables for your blog
- Illustrations and much more...
And it helps me to keep the ads to a minimum, and it enables me to work harder and keep posting regularly and work on more tutorials and blog posts, and take in more requests. It also helps me feed a family of 4. Me, my mum, an adopted half-paralysed cat - Lulu, and my elderly pet dog - Ego. (Thank you for supporting us! You're a gem! 💎)
You can choose to add this blog to your reading list, alternatively you can subscribe to my weekly newsletter that goes out every Tuesday and is filled with updates, promotions, discounts and more only for my VIPs on the list.
I know the feeling of starting a blog and wanting to make a living from this new baby of yours. I know you want it to be successful and I know it brings you joy to work on it either every single day or at least when you have free time.
And I want you to be a successful blogger, someone who makes a good part-time and/or full-time income from their blog. As new bloggers, you'll soon understand that in the blogging world there is no such thing as instant gratification, and with intense competition each year the road gets just a little tougher every single time.
Don't worry though, I don't say these things to make you feel like you'll never make it, I would rather tell you the truth from the get go. I want you to be prepared for the hard work, and I don't want you to feel that you will start making money the minute you start your blog. With that said, I've been receiving a lot of emails about the "right time" to start monetising a blog.
The ideal time to start monetising a blog
My personal advice for this would be to not wait for a later time, when you finally get around to monetising your blog. This is also the advice I usually give to most of my blog coaching clients. I understand why some bloggers, and coaches feel like it's better to wait for around "x" number of sessions or visits monthly before you monetise but I feel, if your blog is able to get accepted into affiliate programs or be approved for showing ads then you should just go ahead with it.
Sure you won't see a lot of money rolling in, but the small amounts you do see will benefit you.
Why?
Because it will motivate you! It will help you to keep blogging, and help you believe that this goal or dream that you have can be turned into a reality. I see so many bloggers calling it quits after an year, because they never earned anything from their blog. And honestly, I feel sad for them. I feel sad for every blogger out there who has had to quit simply because they couldn't afford to blog anymore and were not earning from their blog anyway.
And to be completely honest with you right now, I hate it when that happens. You see, I love blogging. I've been in love with blogging since late 2014 when I hadn't even started this blog. When I used to blog about all the random happenings in my college life... I liked blogging so much, I decided to not take up a job, to study design and development which I'd never done before and then in 2016, I launched this blog.
I want to make sure you will be able to blog long enough to start making an income out of it, but do you know you're leaving a few bucks here and there on the table when you don't monetise your blog from the get go? And that seeing those few extra dollars, or whatever currency is used where you are can really help motivate you be consistent and keep working hard? Not to mention you can use the extra cash for investing in your blog at a later date.
I remember when I first made my first $100 blogging, it was not a huge amount but it made sure that I didn't quit, it motivated me. And as a blogger, self-motivation will help keep you going in the first few years of your blogging journey where you'll probably only be making a part-time income.
I'm in my 5th year with this blog at the time of writing this blog post, and my blog helps me bring in clients every single month that help me run my small home-based business. I'm so thankful for it. I don't monetise too aggressively on this blog, as I don't want you to have a bad experience reading content on my blog, so I politely ask for donations to help fund this blog.
So, if your blog has a decent amount of content on it I suggest you apply for Adsense, and affiliate programs to start making an income, no matter what the amount is right away. Another reason I like the monetise early method is because when you monetise early you won't have to go back to old posts (one less task to do) to update them all with affiliate links all the time.
Wondering how to monetise your blog?
Generally speaking, most bloggers will monetise their blog in the following way:
- Advertisements
- Affiliate marketing
- Sponsored posts
- Selling a service or a product
- Donations
As you may have already guessed it, for Balkeni Studio, I sell my services and products as my main income bringer. Apart from this, you'll see me monetise this blog with a few advertisements and a bit of affiliate marketing (I'm picky with this as I only want to recommend something I use and really like). But as advertisements and affiliate marketing on this blog is negligible, I rely on donations to help fund the blog.
Depending on your blog and what your aim with it is, you'll be relying on these methods to monetise your blog. I'll be writing on these means of monetisations in depth in an upcoming blog post, so you might want to subscribe to the blog to receive these blog posts directly in your inbox.
Let's be inbox buddies!
Want to fast track your blog's growth?
The best way to quickly learn all the ins-and-outs in the blogging world is to learn from someone whose already been doing it for quite some time. I've been a blogger for quite some time and have helped many bloggers go from $0 to $500 per month. You can choose a one-on-one coaching package from me or a more affordable solution ($50/year membership) depending on where you are on your journey.
I hope this blog post has helped you and you've enjoyed reading it. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave them down in the comments section below. Oh and help support this blog by funding it if you've liked the content. I put in hours ever month to bring you lots of freebies, advice, tutorials and tips.
INFO : If you donate via buy me a coffee, you'll automatically get access to all future supporter exclusive content such as more tutorials, freebies etc.
I hope that you've benefitted from this blog post as I've written it from my experience and with lots of love. You can request a tutorial or a blog post that you'd like to read about from me in the future here.
It's March already! Ever since I decided to to say "I'll start next month" to the gym membership I'd been planning to enroll myself in 3 months ago... time sure has flown me by. Jokes apart, I'd like to bring you the wallpapers for this month. As always the smartphone/iPhone version is free for download for all as a token of thanks for supporting my small business.
I hope you'll enjoy this freebie!
You can get your hands on this wallpaper for free. Or you can buy me a coffee and get the entire pack of matching wallpapers here.
OR
If you already support me on buy me a coffee (if you're a member), this set of wallpapers is free for you!As always, I hope you like the content I create for you and that it helps you. If there's anything, a tutorial, or a request you'd like me to address, get in touch with me or leave a comment below. Happy to hear from you.
IMPORTANT : These wallpapers whether the free version or the purchased set is/are only for your personal use, any commercial use is prohibited. Also, please be nice and don't claim my work as your own.
This tutorial has been highly requested. The first request for the tutorial landed in my inbox through the tutorial request option that I have available on my website. However I did not get around to publishing it until now due to lots of client work and personal projects.
Not to mention, I started a membership that bloggers on blogger could enjoy. Many of these things kept this tutorial as a draft in my post. But here we are and I'm happy to bring this tutorial for any of you who need/needed it. And that too in 4 easy steps:
01. Navigate to the backend of your blogger template
Make sure that you are logged in to your blogger dashboard. Then go to:
Theme > Customise (Click the dropdown instead of the button) > Edit HTML
02. Search And Add Code
Once you are in the HTML editor of your theme, click anywhere on the code once and press Command + F (For Mac users) or Control + F (for windows users), this will open a search dialogue in the editor, now, search for this code:
.post-body
TIP : Copy this piece of code and paste it directly in the search box.
You will now hit enter once and add the following code right after the curly bracket ("{"):
line-height:1.6;
TIP : increase or decrease the number in the code (1.6) above to experiment with the line height you think is best for your blog posts.
03. Save your work
Once yo made all these changes, make sure to click the save button and save your template to commit to the changes you just made.
TIP : Remember to back up your blog before you start tinkering around with the theme HTML, it's generally a good idea to keep weekly backups of your blog content and theme. Also, please work in a fresh window, I know some of you have multiple blogs and you don't want to edit the wrong blog! Always check to see if you are editing the right theme.
That's it, you're done! You'll now notice that the distance (spacing) between the lines of a paragraph in your blog post has increased. Obviously a lesser or greater number will decrease or increase this spacing respectively. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
I tried to make it very simple so that even people that are not tech savvy can approach this tutorial and follow through with it easily. If you have any questions and/or doubts, suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments down below. And as always, comments with links and/or spammy comments will not be published.
Don't wish to put up with the hassle of doing this all by yourself?
Custom Work - Minor Customisations
Let me take care of making any line height and blog post text related issues and problems for you if you find the tutorial too complex. Just sit back and relax while I work out the styling kinks for your blog. Trust me, I love working wih blogger and have helped 60+ bloggers with their blogs till date. This number inceases every month by God's grace. I'd love to help you out as well. Still not sure? I've been a product expert for blogger in the official forum for years now! Let's touch base and help you with your blog.
If you have any other tutorial or request for a blog post for me, please feel free to submit it here. If you have any issues you'd like me to personally check for you, you can take a look at my services or get in touch directly.
If you like you can even follow my blog by adding it to your reading list and stay up-to-date with all my posts. Or simply sign-up to receive my blog posts directly in your inbox.
Let's be inbox buddies!
Want to be part of my community?
I currently run two free groups on Facebook. One is exclusively for bloggers on the blogger platform, where we discuss everything blogger, I help people in my group with their requests, offer free consultations and more. The other group I run is for bloggers that are currently trying to build up their blogs, if you're either of those or both, I'd love to connect with you there!
P.S. If you like reading content on my blog please help me keep the good work up by donating to the blog. If you choose to support me, you help me put out even more content than before, freebies and tutorials because not only does that support the studio it also compensates me for hours of work I put in to these blog posts. As you'll notice, I don't heavily monetise this blog because your user-experience matters to me, your donation helps make up for the lack of aggressive advertising on this blog. I'll be super thankful if you choose to donate!
You can make a one-time donation or become a supporter on buy me coffee and grab even more freebies and unlock premium content.
This year I decided to start a free resources section for all the wonderful readers of this blog. I love writing for you but now it's time to start offering free wallpapers! I love making them and have been designing my own for a very long time. Ever since I learned to design I believe?
I hope you'll enjoy this freebie!
You can get your hands on this wallpaper for free. Or you can buy me a coffee and get the entire pack of matching wallpapers here.
OR
If you already support me on buy me a coffee (if you're a member), this set of wallpapers is free for you!As always, I hope you like the content I create for you and that it helps you. If there's anything, a tutorial, or a request you'd like me to address, get in touch with me or leave a comment below. Happy to hear from you.
IMPORTANT : These wallpapers whether the free version or the purchased set is/are only for your personal use, any commercial use is prohibited. Also, please be nice and don't claim my work as your own.
Let's be inbox buddies! I'll only e-mail you when a new blog post goes up, there's a freebie up for grabs or it's something you might be interested in.
In today's blog post, I want to show you how to set-up an auto-updating recipe index for your food blog on blogger. This has been one of the most requested tutorials of all time.
I can understand this, it is actually a very good practice to put your users (readers/audience) first, and with Google changing its algorithm ever so often it's even more apparent that the future of SEO is much more reliant on good design and user experience.
What does this mean for you as a blogger? It means, you want to make it extremely easy for your readers to find content that they are looking for on your website easy and confusion-free.
One of the best ways to put years worth of content in front of your audience is through putting it up in a category that updates automatically as and when you publish a post. This is exactly what I'm showing you how to do in this post.
Here are some of the requirements of this tutorial:
- You'll need a blogger theme that has a gallery page layout enabled on label pages or a theme can be easily customised to have gallery pages on label pages.
- You'll need to have all your blog posts sorted into the labels you want
How to get a gallery enabled blogger theme
One of the simplest ways to do this would be to buy a theme (usually not that expensive). I recommend this theme from my shop, or this one to completely forego having to go through this tutorial (Cookin' Daily is a responsive blogger theme which comes with a built in-recipe index and it updates automatically and the best part is the free installation that I offer with all my themes along with lifetime support for theme related issues).
If you don't have the budget for a blogger theme, I'll show you how to use a free theme from blogger to do so as well. Of course, I recommend upgrading to a premium theme whenever you can because of the added features and customisability.
TIP : If you intend to blog seriously and to make it a full-time or part-time income maker in your life, I do definitely recommend investing in your blog by having a functional and beautiful design and brand.
Let's get into it.
INFO : You need to have labels in your posts for this method to work!
Step 01: Grab the HTML
First, you will need to copy and save this HTML somewhere you won't lose it. I prefer using Trello or Evernote. But you can use whatever you like.
<div class="recipe-index">
<a href="THE LINK TO YOUR BLOGGER LABEL" target="_blank">
<img alt="ALT TAG FOR YOUR IMG" height="400" src="LINK TO YOUR IMAGE" width="600" />
</a>
<br />
<div class="desc">
<a href ="THE LINK TO YOUR BLOGGER LABEL">NAME OF THE CATEGORY</a></div>
</div>
Step 02: Install the CSS in your blogger theme
Now that you have saved the HTML for use, you will need to add the CSS to your blogger theme. To do this:
- Go to Theme > Customise > Advanced > Add CSS
Then you will copy the following code:
/* Recipe Index Code by Balkeni Studio
-------------------------------------- */
div.recipe-index {
margin: 5px;
border: 1px solid pink;
float: left;
width: 48.8%;
}
div.recipe-index:hover {
border: 1px solid #777;
}
div.recipe-index img:hover {
opacity: 0.5;
}
div.recipe-index img {
width: 100%;
height: auto;
max-height: 400px;
object-fit:cover;
}
.desc {
padding: 15px;
text-align: center;
}
.post-body img, .post-body a img, .post-thumb img, .post-thumb a img {
margin:0;
}
@media screen and (max-width: 1216px) {
div.recipe-index {
margin: 5px;
border: 1px solid pink;
float: left;
width: 100%;
display: block;
margin: 0 auto;
margin-top: 10px;
}
div.recipe-index img {
width: 100%;
height: auto;
max-height: none;
}
}
/* END - DO NOT REMOVE THESE CREDITS!
-------------------------------------- */
Now that you have copied the code paste it in the Add CSS section then click Save.
You are now ready to set-up your Recipe Index page.
Step 03. Make A Recipe Index Page
The next step is to make a page in your blogger blog and call it "Recipe Index". You will then go to the HTML section of your blog and paste the HTML you saved in the first step.
Note: You will paste this same code in this page according to the number of categories you have. So, if you have 6 categories, you will paste this code in 6 times.
Step 04: Adding in your content
It is already mentioned in the HTML you copied how to customise the contents of your gallery, but for your ease of use, I'll mention it here as well.
- THE LINK TO YOUR BLOGGER LABEL: This is the link to the label of the category you want to use. To grab the link of your label, just view a post with the label you want, then click on that label, once that page loads, just copy the link from the address bar.
- THE ALT TAG FOR YOUR IMAGE: This is purely for SEO purposes and for people with disabilities like visual impairment when they read your website. You will write the name your image describing what it is here. For example, apple pie.
- THE LINK TO YOUR IMAGE: You should have your image for the category uploaded in the media for your blog, just right-click the image you want to use and grab the link of the image and paste it in this section.
- NAME OF THE CATEGORY: You will add the name of your category here.
And that's it. You're done! Now, this page will automatically enable people clicking on the categories to be taken to your most recent posts in that category, and it will keep itself updated.
Easy, right?
P.S. wanna forego all this hassle? I've got just the product for you!
Cookin' Daily - A Responsive Blogger Template
Cookin' Daily is a premade blogger template specially designed for food bloggers, or bloggers in the health, wellness, lifestyle or nutrition industry. It comes with a custom landing page and an auto-updating blog recipe index, beautiful gallery pages and a blog layout that's optimised for running ads on your blog and offers your audience a great user experience by keeping it simple yet branded and easy for your audience to find any post they are looking for!
I hope you liked this tutorial! If you have any questions about this tutorial or a step confuses you, feel free to leave a comment below for help.
However, please do not attach your blog links in the comment, If I'll need a link to your blog I'll reply with further instructions to get in touch with me. Comments with links will not be published and will end up in the spam!
If you've enjoyed this tutorial, please support my work by donating using the buy me a coffee option (you can even use the coffee icon at the bottom-right of your screen!), it really helps me write more tutorials. Writing blog post takes a lot of time and effort as many of you may already know, and I want to be able to keep the blog alive and free for all of you.
A small donation really helps me stay motivated and be compensated for the time, energy and effort I put into my work. As always, thank you so much for your support! Wondering why donate? Read about my mission here.
Alternatively, you can even help me spread the word by sharing this blog post with your followers!
If you've got any other tutorial or blog post in mind that you'd like to read about, make sure to send in a request here. I'd love to write for you!
You can even sign up follow my blog by adding it to your reading list or signing up to receive blog posts directly in your inbox.
If there's anything else, I hope you let me know in the comments down below. It's always lovely to hear from you all! and if you'd like more support feel free to join the community for bloggers on blogger (FB group) and the new bloggers (FB group) run by me to help you with all you blogging and blogger woes!
This year, my focus has been more on helping bloggers with branding. One of the first steps towards a rememberable brand is a distinct logo that your audience just connects with. For a lifestyle blog, this can mean having your own photo turned into an illustration!
If you follow me on my personal Instagram, you'll know I love watercolours. Thus, when the opportunity presented itself I did not think for another second.
This particular look was achieved digitally using my ipad pro, apple pencil and my favourite watercolour brushes for the illustration and my trusted adobe suite for making the logo and the blog header.
Blog Header
Logo
Over all, we were happy with how it turned out. Using your own self as a reference for an illustration, guarantees a unique stylised logo and header.
Keywords: cute, girly, preppy and full of life.
If you're interested in getting a logo similar to this one or something else entirely, feel free to get in touch or visit my shop!
When you are considering starting a blog with Google's Blogger platform, it can be scary if someone tells you that blogger is not a good blogging platform, one of the most common reasons cited is not being able to monetise your blogger blog effectively or at all
And so, I've decided to help you understand why the statement above is not true. You can have a blog on blogger and you can monetise it effectively and even to great lengths. It's no different from having a blog on any other blogging platform.
I have been blogging on blogger for a bit over 4 years at the time of writing this blog post, I do earn from my blog. And my blog along with my work is the only job I have ever had. I've not worked a traditional 9-5 a day in my life, I do however work 8 hours a day usually.
I'm here to prove to you that it's not only possible to run a blog successfully on blogger but also your entire business if you know what you're doing. But more on that in a moment, let's first learn why blogging on blogger does not affect your ability to be able to earn from your blog.
How do bloggers actually earn an income from their content?
I've actually given you a bit of a spoiler already. Bloggers earn from their content. Most bloggers that earn an income from their blog do so by mainly the following streams of monetisation:
- Advertising using an ad network or selling direct ad spaces on their blog.
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling services/products
- Paid sponsorships/Brand sponsorships
- Donations
Blogger terms of use and content policy are simple, they do not state that they own any content you create on their platform or limit your use of their platform in a way that you would not be able to use these mentioned streams of monetisation.
Now, my question is, do you still feel it's not possible to monetise a blogger blog? I run this blog on blogger, I have been able to monetise it using all mentioned streams of monetisations. And it's not just me, there are other bloggers on blogger who make a part-time and/or full-time income from their blogs.
In my 4 years of working with bloggers on the blogger platform I've seen them all being able to monetise their blogs, in fact, I believe that they do have somewhat of an advantage, you know. And I'd like to prove my point, so here we go.
Why bloggers on blogger may have an advantage over other bloggers who use different blogging platforms?
It all really comes down to how Blogger is made and who owns it and how it is a free to use platform. This is where you can really see how much of an edge you get if you use Google's Blogger platform.
Let me explain more about this:
- Out-of-the-box blogger is SEO friendly, with means to be able to make it even more so. You can add meta tags, custom robots tag and enable meta descriptions and so much more. It's easy and most of it is just a few clicks away, not very complicated.
- Blogger is free. This makes it a great choice not only for those on a budget but even those that do not have budget constraints. Whether you are a new blogger or a more experienced one, blogger is a platform which allows you to host your blog for free forever. It doesn't matter how many visitors you get - which on other platforms cost you, the more you have the more you pay. And the best part about having a free platform is that you can invest your budget into other things like a premium blogger theme that makes your blog look more professional, or a logo — the same money you would have given away to your blog host if you were on another platform.
- You can easily integrate AdSense into your blogger blog. In fact, there is an earnings tab that tells you if your blog qualifies for AdSense if it does you can sign up with a few clicks, it's easy and you can start earning a passive income right away if you have enough audience on your blog.
- Blogger is affordable. Custom services and tech support for blogger is usually more affordable than for other platforms. I offer tech support and services for the blogger platform, and it is quite affordable. If you're new and can't afford to pay, you can join my Facebook groups for free help or help based on a donation. It's all about building a loving and nurturing community where you don't have to feel guilty, bad or ashamed of not having a budget and wanting help. We don't judge. All bloggers are welcome.
- Blogger is simple and easy to use. It's straightforward. You can create pages and you can create posts, you can categories them and a lot of it is drag and drop. The rest is just clicking of buttons here and there. Support is available through the official support forum, or you can even get in touch with me (I'm a product expert who volunteers in the official support forum too.) And if all else fails just write about it in the comments section of this post and hopefully I'll have a resolution for you.
These are just some of the advantages of blogging on blogger. I feel the community over at blogger is really good. Personally, for me, I've made long-lasting connections with many of my clients and the people in my Facebook groups, I regularly connect with them and everyone takes care of each other.
I value honesty and transparency, leading a heart-centred business is important to me. And at the core of it all is actually helping bloggers and keeping things affordable around here.
I know you may still be feeling a bit apprehensive or hesitant even when it comes to choosing your blogging platform, you may have heard things like blogger isn't customisable, or it lacks plugins and more. I'd like to address some of these fears that make you feel like you're missing out.
What are the most common myths attached to the blogger platform?
Let's start by discussing some blogger myths that you may have read everywhere but are actually not true:
- Blogger owns the content you create: No, that's not true. As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, blogger's terms of service and content policy never indicate that they own the content you create.
- Blogger does not have plugins: That's true. But the thing is, blogger is made differently and does not need plugins. It uses widgets and you can code in any custom functionality you might need on your blog. Personally, I have custom features and codes added in that help me make click-to-tweet sections, tables, buttons and more. You could have them installed on your blog too, I offer these as part of my services and they are usually a one-time setup. Moving forward, you just have to copy and paste code snippets in your blog posts. I've helped clients add star ratings, Facebook like buttons, recipe indexes and more.
- Customisation options are limited: This used to be true because bloggers gives you only a handful of templates to choose from. And without coding knowledge, it was quite limited what you could make your blog do. But now, you can choose from a variety of blogger templates that are fast, SEO-optimised, and look beautiful on all devices as they are responsive. The best part, they are very affordable!
- Blogger templates are not optimised for SEO: SEO is a vast topic, to think a template can help you get a Google Page #1 rank shows in of itself your lack of SEO knowledge. There are many on-page, off-page and technical aspects of SEO and they keep changing apart from some basic ones. My own line of blogger templates are SEO-optimised to the point they can be. My clients do report an increase in traffic after using one of my templates but I believe most of it is to do with a good code-structure and the design of the templates that make them look professional. Many people have commented on the fact that you can no longer tell the difference between a blog designed on blogger or any other platform because of how customisable the nature of the blogger platform is!
- You can't sell your products on Blogger or have your own store: Back in the early 2000s the options were truly limited, but now, you can sell directly on your blogger blog. Physical or digital products. Even your own services, for that matter and it's one of the most affordable ways to sell online through your blogger blog. If you don't like this solution you can even use other solutions like blogger shop set-up that I offer to my clients. It's a shop hosted on a blogger blog, managed and maintained by you. I offer free training, advice and consultation if you opt for this package. If you want to see a demo of the blogger shop and what yours could look like, have a look at Balkeni Studio's Blogger Shop. It's customisable and you can choose from a range of designs and costs only a one-time setup fee instead of a monthly recurring fee!
- Blogger is old and can be shut down any minute by Google: Blogger is old, but as of late it has received many a complete revamp, a mobile responsive structure and many new changes. I would doubt Google wants to shut it down after it is spending so much time re-vamping things around. But in the scenario, years later, if Google decides to shut it down, I'm sure it will give us options to migrate our data and enough time to do so as well. Companies and products are shut down and abandoned all the time, but I don't think its time yet for blogger as the community here is thriving.
Now, let's get back at the question we bean with. Is it possible to monetise your blogger blog? I believe knowing what you know now, you should already know the answer, but let me make it clearer for you.
Can you actually monetise a blogger blog?
Yes, yes you can! And you'll have the tools available to do so as well. I've mentioned many resources here that can help you get started and effectively monetise your blogger blog. The beauty of starting on blogger is that you can experiment with it.
Just start and find out if blogging really is your thing, I feel it's a great option for bloggers and service-based entrepreneurs. The best thing is, it's free so you won't have to feel like you're running out of budget and everything is so costly. You won't feel money holding you back from making your dreams a reality.
And the best thing? Your blogger blog can grow with you. Once you get how things work around the blogosphere, and your blog starts to grow you can invest back in it, you can start to sell your own products, services and more.
As a web designer, blogger is my platform of choice for bloggers and service-based entrepreneurs. I feel it accomplishes everything one may need to run a successful blog or freelance business.
Conclusion
Well, you already know its more than possible to monetise a blogger blog and now you also know why you should start a blog on blogger. I really think you should be able to make an informed choice that isn't influenced by someone wanting to make money off of you but backed by actual advice.
And now in case you do decide to blog on blogger I'd love for you to get in touch with me and hopefully join my community.
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P.S. Need consultation about your blog? I'm here to help you. No matter what you're looking for. Let's get in touch and help you take your blog to the next level. You can choose between any of my two consultation packages or book a one-hour intensive session with me.
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