Many people have messaged me asking what to do if they find a good blog or want to create a blog like mine? This answer is really difficult to fully express through a message to each of you, so sometimes people think I'm hiding my profession.
That's not the case, there's nothing to hide about these things and my opinion is that the more people I share with them, the more beneficial it will be, so today I will dedicate an article sharing the resources and things that make up the difference. Medio's Blog. After this article, no one will say I'm holding back. hehe
Platform Medio's Blog uses
My blog uses the open platform WordPress. This is the strongest blogging platform at the moment with an ecosystem from interfaces, plugins to programmers. So if you want to have your own blog, don't think too much and choose WordPress.
You can download the WordPress installer here WordPress.Org
Interface used by Medio's Blog
Medio's Blog uses the Newspaper interface - a paid theme sold on ThemeForest for 59$. The interface has been customized a bit, but you can completely edit a lot of things in the theme settings without knowing the code.
In addition, I used the Thrive Architect plugin to build the media.finance homepage. Thrive Architect is a drag-and-drop landing page builder plugin without needing to know code. I have also introduced it in the article: Evaluating the best Landing Page design platforms
However, initially you can use any free theme in the WordPress theme library.
Initially, I only used the free interface for this blog. After a period of better development, I bought the interface and edited it into what it is today. Take this initial time to focus on investing more in content. Whether or not a blog has quality depends mainly on whether the content it provides is useful to readers or not!
Domain name & Hosting service Medio's Blog uses
If you don't know, your website (blog) needs a domain name and server for storage.
The domain name will be like your name, easy-to-remember words so people can call it out on the Internet instead of hard-to-remember IP numbers. For example, my blog domain name is: media.finance
The server will be the place for you to place your Website on the Internet environment to operate the Website - it is like your body.
For example, if I call Linh, Linh is like a domain name. And when Linh looked back, it was Linh using Linh's body and it was like a server.
Current domain names have many endings such as .com, net, .info,... while Vietnamese domain names will have endings like .vn, com.vn, edu.vn...
Domain names like .com, .net, .info,... will cost about 300k/year. Domains like .vn and .com.vn will cost about 700-800k for the first year. The remaining features to maintain will cost about 400k.
It's best when buying domain names to choose domain names with a somewhat common extension so that readers can easily remember and access them.
I am currently using a high-performance VPS (virtual server) at Vultr's Japanese location with 1GB configuration for 6$/month ~ 140,000 VND/month. On this server, I also put several of my websites on it, not just Medio's Blog.
Servers located abroad will have the weakness that they can be slow if a cable break occurs. But I evaluate the performance of foreign servers as better and more stable than servers in Vietnam.
One more thing, servers will be classified into Hosting < VPS (virtual server) < Dedicated Server (Dedicated server).
In the correct order from smallest to largest, I listed the verses above: 1 Dedicated server will create a lot Virtual server, 1 Virtual Server will create many Hosting
If you are new to blogging, you should use Hosting for ease of use and cost savings. I suggest you use our domain name and hosting services AZDIGI by Thach Pham - a very famous WordPress blogger from whom I learned a lot of knowledge through Thach Pham's blog.
Basically, you only need the free WordPress code above + Domain name + Hosting and you can make a blog.
Email service by domain name
The service to create emails by domain name is using Zoho Mail's free package. Zoho free plan allows you to create 5 emails by domain name. Previously, I used to use Outlook normally, but now it seems to have been blocked and I have to upgrade to a paid package to install it into Outlook. But you can absolutely use the Web browser and Zoho App on your phone to receive and reply to mail.
Regarding sending mass emails, I use Amazon's Amazon SES service. You just need to install the SMTP for Amazon SES plugin to use the Amazon server to send bulk emails for a fee of only about 1 VND/1 email. My package can currently send about 20,000 emails/day.
If your Blog does not need to send many emails, you can install SMTP Plugins for WordPress and then set the parameters of Zoho Mail or Gmail to send emails (such as comment notification emails for readers, notification emails for yourself,... )
Supported Plugins
Currently, I have installed quite a few support plugins, both paid and free. However, installing many unnecessary plugins can slow down your website. And for new bloggers, I find this unnecessary. I think that in addition to a few necessary plugins I mentioned above, you only need to install Yoast SEO in the beginning.
Yoast SEO is a plugin used to optimize websites for search sites like Google, Bing, etc. to help your website easily achieve high rankings, making it easier for readers to find your articles.
Install WordPress and Themes
Instructions for installation and customization would be very long, and quite a few people have written about these things already. You just need to search Google and you will find it.
This article is quite sketchy if it is for someone who does not know anything about websites to be able to set up a blog. If you write an article from A to Z, it will actually be very long and have many illustrations. If you need it, you can comment below and let me know. If there are many people interested, I will write about it. Because to write such a long article, if I write it and no one cares, I will be a bit sad. hehe
The most important thing I want to talk about is that you need to be diligent and provide useful content that is truly useful. Only then can the blog develop. Understand why you blog for what it is, is it for a hobby or to make money. If you want to make money, you need to have a specific plan because in the beginning it will be difficult for your blog to generate enough income to support you.
Wishing you success in pursuing your passion!
