Websites are great at bringing in revenue to bloggers. However, for some people, this is not enough due to the high maintenance costs of their websites decreasing their profit margin. When you first start off in blogging, the cost of running a website will be quite high for the fact that to get a website fully running will cost time and money in SEO, design, writing articles, hosting and so on. Once the website is running, although cheaper than when first starting up (otherwise known as the start-up costs), the cost of running a website, for some bloggers, can still be quite unnecessarily high. For this reason, here are a few ways you can reduce the running cost of your website to help you maximise your profit.
 
 

Take Advantage Of Free Services

Advertising is a powerful tool on the internet. So much that you may find out that you are paying for a service for your blog which other websites can do for free. The main one I am talking about is analytical tools which analyses the performance of your website. Unfortunately, Blogger and WordPress provide very limited analysis of the traffic from a website. This is what entices people into paying for analytical services. However, there are many websites that will do that for free such as Google with Google Analytics. There is always a cheaper version of what you are about to buy on the internet. It is just a question of time about how to find it. For most bloggers, they are lazy and are paying for convenience. However 5-10 minute research online may find that the majority of services you are paying for with your blog have free and possibly better alternatives.
 
 

Don’t Web Host With Google

This is a little tip just for those that have websites with Blogger (like me). When it comes to creating and buying your own custom domain name, Google gives bloggers the opportunity of convenience by letting them buy the domain name right within Blogger with services such as GoDaddy and eNom. However, what I found is that Google are charging bloggers crazy prices for domain names which are 3-4 times more expensive than if you went straight to GoDaddy or eNom’s website. It is not difficult at all trying to link a domain to a website. Therefore, when it comes to buying your own domain, do it through the actual website of the domain register rather than Google’s Blogger. I managed to buy one of my domains for 5 years which would have been the same price for just a year through Google.
 

SEO, is it Worth it?

I admit that SEO is a great tool for bloggers. However, I have never been solely dependent on paid SEO gaining me organic traffic. My website AskWillOnline.com, has been the only website that I have not pumped a single penny of SEO into. It has gained all its traffic naturally and, in essence, it has been quite successful without any services offering SEO help, tips or tricks or anything. Therefore, don’t feel obliged that you have to spend money on services to gain success as a blogger. The best success comes naturally when you least expect it.
 
 
Ultimately, the above points are saying ‘What running costs can I survive without?’:

• Can I survive without convenience?
• Can I survive with registering and setting up domains without Google’s assistance?
• Can I survive without paid SEO help?

If you can answer yes to these types of questions regarding your website, you are well on your way to reducing the running costs of your website.