Your Own Prepper Website - 8 Ways You Can Make Your Mark in the Preparedness Community!
Starting Prepper Website was one of the best decisions I ever made. I saw a need in the Preparedness Community and I acted to do something about it. Prepper Website has been a real blessing to me and my family in so many ways. I am truly grateful for everyone who has supported Prepper Website and my other sites throughout the years.
Like I’ve said before since I scan hundreds of articles a day to find the best to post on Prepper Website, I’ve noticed many great websites come and go. The sad thing is all their great content seems to disappear off the internet. I recently wrote an article, Do Dead Preppers Tell Tales, to address how someone who is interested in finding an articlefrom the TAG Cloud that “seems” to not be there, can find it. But, that requires a link. There are so many articles out there that go to Prepper Heaven because no one has their links.
The fact is that new preparedness websites need to come in and take their place. This opens up a great opportunity for those who want to start their own Prepper Website! I want to share some of these great benefits with you in this article!
REASONS TO START YOUR OWN PREPPER WEBSITE
You Learn More When You Teach (write)– When someone “wakes up” and realizes how fragile our world is, they start to learn as much as they can to prepare for an uncertain future. There is a lot of content out there to learn, but nothing will ever take the place ofsomeone able to learn a skill and then teach it. In fact, this is a teaching strategy that good teachers employ. They know if their students can learn something, and then teach it to someone else, that they will really learn and own that content. When you research, experiment, and write your own articles, you tend to learn that content or skill better than just reading it on a blog somewhere.
You Build A Tribe – As you build your audience, you’ll also build a tribe or followers who will stay with you. Preparedness can sometimes be a lonely endeavor. In a recent Prepper Website poll, 47 percent said that when it comes to their preparedness, “It’s just me and my immediate family – spouse, kids.”
Preppers are always looking for ways to connect. Some of the preparedness sites out there really take the time to engage with their readers through the comment section. Sites like The Survivalist Blog, Ask A Prepper and American Preppers Online have a great following. Having a tribe helps others not feel so isolated as they prep for the future.
You Can Earn Money – Now I want to be careful here. Having a website doesn’t mean you automatically start earning money. You need to build readership. And as your website becomes more popular, you will be able to make money in affiliate sales and advertisements.
Affiliates – An affiliate is a group or organization you partner with to sell a product or products. As you do, you earn a percentage of everything that is sold. The best affiliate, in my opinion, is Amazon. When someone reads an article that has a product from Amazon linked to it, then they go to Amazon and purchase it, you get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost the reader anymore. The percentage that you receive is already averaged into the price of the product. The beauty of it is that if someone goes to Amazon off of your affiliate link, but purchases another item, you still get credit for that purchase. NOTE: A word of caution. You don’t want to fill up your articles with affiliate links. In fact, I often skip over articles that look like all they have done is insert affiliate links on every line. You don’t want to have one big linkfest article.
Advertisements – You can also earn money when someone with a business or product approaches you to place their ad on your site, or you approach them to get their advertisements on your site. In order to have this, you have to have a website that is bringing in traffic. Advertisement money is something that can be a consistent monthly income for you.
STARTING YOUR OWN PREPAREDNESS WEBSITE
Get a Domain Name and Hosting – There are some free options for hosting, but if you’re going to be serious about this, you need to have your own domain name and hosting. Take some time to think about your name. You’ll want to make sure that you can get your domain name and the same or very similar name on social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
The hosting company that you go with is important. When I started out, I chose GoDaddy because they were a big company and they had very good prices. But, you get what you pay for. GoDaddy’s support sucks and they rarely admit they have done anything wrong. I recently switched Ed that Matters over to EMWD (affiliate link). This hosting provider starts you off with a free domain name and hosting for a little more than $100/year. There are some big advantages here. First, the support is great. They answer support tickets pretty quickly. But more importantly, they offer free SSL certificates on all their hosting. That means that your address will be HTTPS instead of just HTTP. HTTPS is more secure (notice the green SECURE lock at the left of the address bar). Google has said that they are going to start penalizing sites that don’t have the HTTPS in their search rankings. Like I said, I moved Ed that Matters about two months ago and I plan on moving Prepper Website later this month. Prepper Website is bigger so I need all hands-on deck when this one is transferred.
You Need a Website Platform – After you have your domain name and hosting setup, you’ll need a website platform. I use WordPress. Wordpress is so easy to use and there are tons of help online, including websites, YouTube videos, and Facebook groups. With WordPress, you have access to free themes and a whole host of plugins that can be configured to do what you want. It truly is a great platform to use! If you choose to go with EMWD, they will install WordPress for you after you submit a simple ticket. They make it so simple!
Start Writing Content – This is important. What I have found is that preppers will gravitate to sites with great content! This usually means that you will go a little deeper than surface type articles. The best articles, the ones that are most valuable to preppers, are those that actually describe how to do something. General overview information is good. Preparedness theory is good. Opinions are good. But what preppers really want to know is how to do something. One site that does this very well is Survival Sherpa. Todd’s site is not the only site, but it is one that just immediately comes to mind. Sites like Survival Sherpa will make you want to get out there and try “it” for yourself!
Like I mentioned earlier, when I started Prepper Website, I saw a need and filled it with one site that would link to the best content out there. If you notice a need and start to fill it, it will benefit you too. Two needs that I currently see in the preparedness community are websites that cater to older preppers and websites that focus on wilderness survival/bushcraft.
The demographic research that I have done is that a great number of preppers are older. They see the writing on the wall and desire to be prepared just like everyone else. But they are dealing with barriers that younger people won’t have to deal with. If a few sites would start to target these older preppers, I feel that it would be a great blessing to them and the preparedness community.
There used to be a bigger emphasis on wilderness survival in the past. It’s not as prevalent anymore. Yes, you can find an article here or a YouTube there, but I feel a site that is dedicated to just wilderness survival and bushcraft skills would be very popular.
GET NOTICED
Write for Others – One of the things I did when I started Prepper Website is to start writing articles for other sites. This would seem counterproductive, but it does work. When you do this, you are providing a great article for another site to use and you are linking to your own articles and websites within that article. It is a win-win.
Now with that said, I will say that many people are starting to do this. It is a backlink strategy. The problem is that there is a bunch of CRAP out there! I usually delete 4-5 offers a week of people who want to write guest posts for me. Ihave become so disenchanted with these types of emails that I delete them without even reading them. They are usually all the same, a form email. When I do respond, it is usually met with disappointment because I get an article with no real depth. It is usually a 500-word article with no real content. A 13-year-old could do better!
So, I’m writing this to tell you to not offer CRAP! If you do offer content to another site, write an AWESOME article! That will get you more respect and traffic than you realize.
Get on Prepper Website – Another way to get noticed is to start showing up on Prepper Website. There are two ways to do this. The first is to let me know that you have started your site. I will grab your RSS Feed and start monitoring your feed for great articles to link to on Prepper Website. The second way is to ask me to display your article in one of the categories on the bottom of Prepper Website. For example, if you are a Preparedness website, I would put your website listing under Preparedness. And if you choose to link to Prepper Website or place the PW graphic on your site, I will place asterisks beside your listing, moving you up in the category. Here is more information about that – CLICK HERE.
Get on The Prepper Website Podcast – Yet another way that I try to help Preparedness websites is to read their articles on The Prepper Website Podcast. Allowing me to read your articles brings attention to your website. I always mention your website and link to your site from the show notes.
If I use your article, I will tag your Twitter and Facebook social media accounts when I push out the episode on my social media accounts. For more information – CLICK HERE.
Get on Top Prepper Websites – Another way that I want to bless the Preparedness community and where you can promote your website is through the Voting Website – Top Prepper Websites. This site is a place where the Preparedness Community can vote for your site and rank you up higher. But the other side of it is that preppers visit TPW and then usually link to other sites, even the newer, smaller ones. You can register your site by clicking on one of the empty fields at the bottom of the page. If there are no empty spots, send me an email. Sometimes websites register because they want the traffic, but they don’t follow the rules and don’t place the voting link on their site. In that case, I delete them. I try to do a good job of catching everyone, but some get by or remove their links later. Again, I have no problem deleting them when they don’t follow the rules.
Get Involved with Other Preparedness Bloggers – There are groups out there that can help provide advice and help with link sharing. Many of these preparedness bloggers are just like you and want to help others learn while they learn themselves. Every niche has these groups, but you’ll want to get with a group of preparedness bloggers and website owners for sure!
Learn to Make Graphics – You don’t NEED to do this, but it helps. When you post your articles on social media, you will want to be able to display a nice looking graphic. There are FREE websites online that will help you to do this. Websites like Canva, PIXLR Express, and PicMonkeyare easy to use. If you are familiar with Adobe Photoshop but don’t own it, you can use a FREE site called PIXLR Editor. And if you are looking for FREE high-quality graphics to use, you can get them at Pixabay.
FINAL WORD
If you are preparing for an uncertain future, if you are planning and trying to help yourself and your family prep, then you have something to offer to the Preparedness Community. You are learning and growing as a prepper. You have ideas and opinions that are beneficial. Let the Preparedness Community know what you have to offer. You never know how doing this will wind up being a blessing for you, your family and others.