From spotlighting customers to offering helpful how-tos, we’ve worked hard to up our content game in 2016. So as we wrap up the year, let’s take a look back at the posts our readers loved most. Here are the Bluehost Blog’s 2016 greatest hits.
How This Bluehost Customer Built a Thriving Blog Community (and Landed a Book Deal)
Bluehost customer Joshua Becker, the author of BecomingMinimalist.com, didn’t just build a thriving blog. He built an online community too. “The most successful bloggers are those who are very reader-focused, who are trying to help people with what they’re writing,” Becker explains. In this post, Becker shares five tips to help you build your own online community.
5 Google Apps Every Small Business Should Be Using
If you’re trying to build a small business, you know how careful you have to be with money. This post offers the five best business management apps from Google that will help you run your business so efficiently you’ll think you had a virtual assistant.
Freshen Your Site for Summer
Summer isn’t just about hitting the beach or taking a family vacation. It’s the perfect time to freshen up your online storefront with these seven simple tips designed to give your online business pages a refreshing mini-makeover.
Best WordPress Security Plugins to Safeguard Against Hackers
If you’re worried about WordPress site security — and who isn’t concerned about blocking hack attacks these days? —you’ll appreciate this roundup of five security plugins that users rank at least 4.7 out of 5 stars.
Steps to Building Your Blog Readership
You can’t expect to build a loyal following for your blog unless you’re willing to invest time and energy into getting to know your readers intimately. In this article, you’ll find five key strategies for growing your readership.
Host and Other TLDs
With more than 127 million .com domain names already out there on the web, it’s no surprise that creating a meaningful handle is challenging for many small business owners. Fortunately, you have other options. You can create the perfect domain name if you understand the advantages of using other top-level domains — like .blog, .travel, or .edu — to drive up traffic and pagerank.
6 Essential Steps to Success for Code Newbies
Steve Jobs once said, “I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.” Coding is no longer a mysterious skill reserved for only the most technologically savvy. If you have ever wondered if coding was something you should learn, this step-by-step blog post will walk you through the process from code newbie to know-it-all.
How to Create a WordPress Website in 5 Easy Steps
Seriously. You can create a beautiful WordPress website in 30 minutes or less with these simple instructions. Grab a cup of coffee, make yourself comfortable, and get ready to build your own business website today. The first step is creating a domain name, so make sure you read Striking out With .Com? Try a New Top-Level Domain first.
Site Security Basics
At Bluehost, we continuously examine our security features and recommend that our customers keep a close eye on theirs too. To help you develop a stronger security strategy, we created this video to take you through six things you can do to secure your website before something goes wrong.
How to Build a Blog
While maintaining a blog requires a big time commitment and a focus on customer service, the actual building of your blog doesn’t have to take your whole day. This post walks you through three simple steps to creating a website with our one-click WordPress installation so that you can start engaging readers and bringing in revenue!
How This Bluehost Customer Turned a Passion for Finance Into a Blogging Career
Michelle Schroeder, another loyal Bluehost customer, turned her passion for blogging and personal finance into Making Sense of Cents. What started out as a hobby for Schroeder now attracts 300,000 monthly readers. If you’re interested in turning your own hobby into a paycheck, check out this inspiring post.
How to Start a Food Truck
Writer Emily Edmonds interviewed several food truck entrepreneurs to learn what works and what doesn’t. From those interviews, she put together these six essential tips to keep in mind when you’re planning to start your own mobile eatery.
7 Lessons Small Businesses Can Learn from the 2016 Election
Entrepreneurs can learn a lot from the 2016 election cycle. This article discusses seven tips that small business leaders can put into action, including building a winning team and telling your brand story to attract loyal customers.
The #WebBasicsinUnder60Seconds Series
In October we put together a four-part #WebBasicsinUnder60Seconds series to answer our readers’ most-asked questions. The last post in the series, featured here, is a succinct explanation of what web hosting is, why you have to pay for it, and why it’s necessary. Each of these in-depth blog posts includes a 60-second video primer.
How This Bluehost Customer Is Building a Pie Empire, One Slice at a Time
Here’s another great customer spotlight to inspire you on your entrepreneurial journey. Rebecca Miller decided to embark on an unexpected career change, switching legal briefs for pie pans. Now her business, Peggy Jean’s Pies, is focused on #WorldPieDomination, serving up fresh slices of caramel apple, white chocolate strawberry, and peach praline everyday.
Is Your Website Scaring Away Potential Customers?
If your bounce rates are climbing and you aren’t able to keep visitors long enough to convince them that your brand is the best fit for their needs, these nine tips can help make your design more appealing to customers.
How to Become a WordPress Contributor: A Comprehensive Guide
WordPress needs volunteer designers, user experience analysts, support forum volunteers, writers, and other experts — and you don’t even have to know how to write code (although if you’re interested in learning, check out 6 Essential Steps to Success for Code Newbies above). This article will show you how to get started.
Meet the Inspiring Kathlyn Hart of “The Big Leap Show”
Starting your own company can be difficult, but Kathlyn Hart was up for the challenge. One of the things she recommends is finding a great web hosting partner. “Whenever I help clients set up their first website, I show them how to do it through Bluehost,” she says.
The Games Plan: How Small Businesses Can Capitalize on the Spirit of Rio
Leading a thriving business isn’t a game, but having a game plan is crucial to success. While the tips in this post focus on harnessing the spirit of the Olympics to drive sales, you can easily implement these tactics for any holiday or athletic event.
The 6 Best Business Blogs for Female Entrepreneurs
And last, but certainly not least, we wrote this article specifically for female entrepreneurs. Fact: every business owner should regularly stay up to date on marketplace news and trends. These six blogs provide a wealth of inspiration and information for female executives and business owners.
