Latest Posts on This Week in Blogging

Blog Spending Audit – Every Premium Blogging Service We Use

Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on July 21, 2022.

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Every so often, I like to do an audit of my business expenses to ensure I'm not overpaying for services or have recurring fees for things I no longer use.

As part of this, I've come up with a list of all of the premium services we use for our blogs be it via hosting, plugins, or other third-party tools outright. As I generally think sharing information like this is helpful for others who may look to improving their blogs (like with our list of WordPress plugins we personally use), I thought it'd be appropriate to share all of the premium services we personally pay for.

My motto when it comes to blogging services is to spare no expense to do things right. That being said, I am thrifty at times and adopt an 80/20 mindset to most things. If I can get 80% of the value at 20% of the cost, I will do it, which is why I pay for things like Keysearch which costs in a year what other SEO services charge for a single month.

So when I say that I pay $3,500/year on services you should instantly recognize that I am paying for quality things, often with multi-site licenses to run my seven sites, but have sought out deals via the 80/20 mindset when appropriate. As you likely do not run as many sites as I do, it is worth pointing out that single site licenses for the below would run about $1,200/year– so you can see that scaling becomes cost-effective in the long run!

So in this one, I wanted to discuss a bit about each service, rough estimates on single and multi-site prices, explain why we pay for them at all, and also highlight reasons why you may want to skip some services as well. Some are simply worth the price far more than others. And, as with everything, your mileage may vary based on your own unique circumstances.

*Note: This guide is for general blogging programs and services we pay for. It does not include advertising nor niche-specific purchases. For full disclosure, I pay an additional $3,000 to $6,000 a year in advertising across all my sites- mostly as a means to get new projects off the ground as opposed to promoting the more established ones.

Is Google a Monopoly? When Search Giants Become too Big

Published by Chris. Last Updated on August 30, 2021.

Disclaimer: This Week in Blogging uses demographic data, email opt-ins, and affiliate links to operate this site. Please review our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

In the blogging world, Google is kind of the elephant in the room. You simply can't avoid their impact unless you've been living under a rock for a couple of decades.

In many ways, it's as if we're able to craft whatever chess pieces we want, but we're ultimately playing on their board.

And that's what we want to talk about. How exactly has that board changed over the years, and how can knowing that information help us in our blogging journey?

Pretty Links Pro Review – Link Cloaking and Affiliate Monitoring

Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on July 21, 2022.

Disclaimer: This Week in Blogging uses demographic data, email opt-ins, and affiliate links to operate this site. Please review our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Pretty Links Pro is an interesting WordPress plugin that is designed for a simple purpose- to cloak links.

While this premium plugin has a very niche use, for those who consistently use affiliate links that are, well, ugly, Pretty Links Pro helps solve a problem that has plagued our industry for years.

In this one, we wanted to dive a bit more as to why bloggers cloak links, when you should and shouldn't do so, and go into a bit more detail in how Pretty Links Pro works to solve this issue.

As a bonus, we'll also talk about a way you can do this without a plugin at all (but even here, we still pay for this one all the same and will share why as well)!

A Brief History of Blogging from 1994 to Modern Day

Published by Chris. Last Updated on February 20, 2023.

Disclaimer: This Week in Blogging uses demographic data, email opt-ins, and affiliate links to operate this site. Please review our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Sometimes we forget that it wasn't all that long ago that “blogs” and “bloggers” were simply not a thing. The “history of blogging” in the grand scheme of things, is a rather short history.

If in elementary school you told the class “I shall be a blogger!” – your declaration would be met with some seriously confused looks.

Often times at This Week in Blogging, we cover the timely topics. We'll write about the rise of Clubhouse, or perhaps cover Google Stories. But today, we're moving away from the timely, and focusing on the timeless.  Today, we're covering the history of blogging.

It was the late great Terry Pratchett who said, “If you don't know where you come from, then you don't know where you are… and if you don't know where you are, then you don't know where you're going.”

So let's go back to where it all started.

Everything You Want to Know About Yoast with Edwin Toonen

Published by Chris. Last Updated on February 22, 2021.

Disclaimer: This Week in Blogging uses demographic data, email opt-ins, and affiliate links to operate this site. Please review our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

As you might imagine, here at This Week in Blogging, we get a fair amount of questions as it relates to WordPress plug-ins, SEO , and all the rest of it.

One question that has been asked of us over and over again is whether bloggers and content creators should have Yoast as their primary SEO plug-in. Furthermore, people want to know whether Yoast Premium is going to be worth it for them to purchase. We decided it was best to take your most commonly asked questions, and ask them of the Yoast Team themselves.

On that note, we want to thank Edwin Toonen, a Strategic Content Specialist at Yoast, for taking the time to answer our questions. We hope that this serves our readers and subscribers well.