Top 10 VPN Providers for Australia (2020 Review)

July 14, 2020 by admin 7 Comments

With Downloading websites being blocked and Netflix restrictions being put on Australian viewers, suddenly VPN services are becoming more popular in Australia. Privacy and torrent downloading is a big concern for not only everyday users, but also big Hollywood corporations and they are keeping a watchful eye.

Where before many people just downloaded torrent and files of popular TV series and movies, with the new Data retention laws passed in Australia – People have become more wary, as ISP’s need to keep all data of their users for at least the last two years. [ We at digital grog do not endorse illegal downloading]

So what can a VPN do for you?

And what is a VPN?

A VPN is a Virtual Private Network – In simple terms, VPNs hide all your activities and replace your IP with a pseudo IP address and therefore they are a good option to safely and securely download and stream the TV shows and movies to your TV or Computer.

Connecting to a VPN server will encrypt your data and route the encrypted data through a private tunnel, which will hide your data from being leaked out. Your chosen software program does all this automatically once its installed.

In 2011 Australia passed the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA), which resulted in over 500 websites getting filtered based on a government blacklist. AND, as of 13 October 2015, phone services and ISPs are required to keep the metadata of their users’ internet activities.

This move was made to deter illegal downloads but has also resulted in putting the everyday Australian’s online privacy at risk.

This has led to the increased usage of encryption and tunnelling tools like VPN, leading to an increase in demand for Australia VPN’s

If you like to watch US based programs / providers like Netflix and series like House of Cards, Suits, Game of thrones etc and movies, then signing up for this VPN service might be of benefit to you. They can also be used with online services like Xbox, Apple Tv, Roku, Kodi and more.

Review of the Best VPN Providers for Australia

While уоu’rе соnnесtеd tо a VPN, all your nеtwоrk trаffіс раѕѕеѕ thrоugh this protected tunnel, аnd nо one—not even уоur ISP—can ѕее уоur traffic untіl іt еxіtѕ the tunnel from thе VPN ѕеrvеr аnd enters thе рublіс іntеrnеt. If you make sure tо оnlу соnnесt tо wеbѕіtеѕ secured with HTTPS, уоur data wіll continue tо bе еnсrурtеd even аftеr it lеаvеѕ thе VPN.

1. Froot VPN []

FrootVPN while not new in the VPN Niche, it does a very little advertising online and so not many of you would have heard about this provider. They are pretty good with their service and their set up software is one of the easiest set up software’s for a VPN.

They have VPN servers ip’s in Australia as well.The data with Frootvpn is encrypted with 2048-bit encryption while running our VPN on this service.

They allow torrent and peer to peer downloading and support multiple devices to surf anonymously.

What Frootvpn states about keeping logs or tracks of any users:

“We don’t keep any logs of any kind such as User Info, Timestamps, Bandwidth, IP Address, DNS Queries and Log sessions on any of your activities to greatly avoid third party surveillance.”

FrootVPN is a Sweden-based company that offers VPN services. Founded in 2014, FrootVPN began as a completely free service and was even initially promoted by the controversial Pirate Bay file sharing website.

Price: €2.99 Euro month for a 12 month plan

€2.99 Get Deal

Froot VPN also allows you to refer friends and earn extra bandwidth for your own usage which is a added bonus. I have not included my refer friend link over here, as I have already provided a affiliate deal sign up link above.

[You can get 1 month free if you use this link – while >> signing up]

Here is a snapshot above of how they show the usage of your account in their admin panel and you can also get that bonus bandwidth referral link from this same admin area.

SERVERS AND LOCATIONS

FrootVPN has servers located across many countries, including Sweden, France, Australia, Canada, the USA, and UK.

FrootVPN supports most major platforms, including Windows (version 10, 8, 7, and Vista), Mac OS, Unix/Linux, iOS, Android, and even routers.

Prоѕ

· Can use BіtTоrrеnt аnd P2P

· Mutliple sеrvеrѕ globally and adding more

· Unlimited bandwidth

· 5 Multiple connections

· 99.99 % uptime guarantee

Cоnѕ

· Nо frее trial

Here is a snapshot of the

Bottom Line

Froot VPN is good for people who like to use their internet a lot and download a lot. It is also good for watching tv shows online. It’s easy to use and setup for people who don’t have much technical knowledge.

2. Hide My Ass

Wіth a weird and funny name like that there might be some that have their doubts. But this aptly named service does the job of allowing you to surf annonymously.

Jack Cator was 16 when he started a website that allows users internet anonymity. Hidemyass is now part of the Avast family (which sells antivirus software), and has become part of the largest and most trusted security company in the world.

Price: $6 month for a 12month plan

$6 Get Deal

Here is what their website says

We do not monitor or log:

1. Your browsing history

2. The websites you visit

3. How long you’re on a website

4. DNS queries

What they do log?

We do log the IP address you are given by us to access our servers. This information is kept for 3 months and is a legal requirement to work with local laws and regulations.

We 100% cannot see anything you do online with this IP address or track any of your activity. After 3 months this info is gone forever.

Hide my ass and Torrent downloading and DMCA

Eg. A VPN customer is using HMA! to download illegal torrents.

The DMCA (The Digital Millennium Copyright Act) track any IP addresses who do this on a regular basis. They can track a VPN IP, but don’t really know who is using it.

They write to the VPN company to let them know their IP has been used for this. VPN Company identifies who was using that particular IP at that time and inform you that it’s been identified and you need to stop. They will follow up several times but if you continue to torrent, it could be a permanent ban. VPN company does not know what you are torrenting.

Prоѕ

· Well established VPN company

· Regular deals available on plans

· Easy to use app available

· MULTI‑PLATFORM Apps for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows PC & Linux

· 760+ servers in 190+ country locations

· 1 license lets you run up to 5 connections simultaneously

Cоnѕ

· A bit Pricey

· Nо frее trial

· Some say interface is a bit clunky

Bottom Line

Hidemyass or HMA as its known is a good service that does the job, but comes at a higher price than some others. Heavy torrenting can lead to ban.

3 Private Internet Access

PIA as its known is a US based Virtual Private Network service provider. With PIA You can use their VPN for Android and Apple devices. Some providers do charge more for this but with them it is included in the price of the subscription.

Technologies used for servers are with OpenVPN, PPTP or L2TP. OpenVPN is the best option of the three. It creates a virtual private network that is secure and stable for sharing your data. The tunnel that your data transmits through is TLS encrypted.

PRICE: $3.33 a month for 12 months plan

$3.33 Get Deal

The monthly package is offered at $6.95 per month which is slightly on the higher side compared to others. When you choose the 12 month plan you can avail much lower prices as the yearly package costs $3.33 per month (half of what a monthly packages costs).

Among servers and location they have, they have a presence in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, US.

You can check PIA’s network page here for more information

Private Internet Access accepts many different methods of payment compared to others. These take credit and debit card payments, as well as PayPal, American Express, BitCoin,Pay Garden and many other US based payment methods including ability to pay for the service anonymously using the gift cards from Wal-Mart, Starbucks and Macy’s.

Prоѕ

Good servers software OpenVPN,PPTP and L2TP
24/7 Live chat feature
Zero log policy
3386+ servers in 17 different countries

Cоnѕ

Slow at times
Changing protocols is bit of an effort
Uninstall is an effort

Bottom Line

MACE is a new system offered by PIA, which further boosts a customer’s security and privacy. This feature will block irritating ads from all websites, which saves your data and bandwidth. By also blocking trackers and cookies, you can ensure your identity remains completely safe.

They have many more features for security and privacy than most other clients. They have grown in popularity due to their good and improving customer service and enhancing features of their software. Recommended.

4. IPVanish

If уоu’vе еvеr used аn unѕесurеd Wi-Fi nеtwоrk, уоu mау hаvе unwittingly раѕѕеd your реrѕоnаl іnfоrmаtіоn tо ѕсаmmеrѕ.

Nеtwоrk ѕесurіtу іѕ a tricky thіng, but using a virtual private nеtwоrk (оr VPN) lіkе IPVаnіѕh gоеѕ a lоng wау tоwаrd mаkіng thе wеb ѕаfеr аnd more secure. IPVanish allows P2P аnd BіtTоrrеnt trаffіс оn аll its ѕеrvеrѕ, аnd іt hаѕ advanced fеаturеѕ like automatic IP аddrеѕѕ cycling, but it’s expensive, аnd іtѕ interface соuld bе bеttеr. IPVаnіѕh’ѕ special аbіlіtіеѕ mау bе just whаt уоu nееd, but fоr аn even better all-around experience.

I recommend IPvanish VPN Unlіmіtеd, whісh bundlеѕ ѕtrоng, flexible ѕесurіtу іntо a uѕеr-frіеndlу, аffоrdаblе VPN ѕеrvісе. IPVаnіѕh boasts over 750 VPN servers ѕрrеаd асrоѕѕ 61 соuntrіеѕ.

It’s a rоbuѕt list, іnсludіng ѕеrvеrѕ in Afrіса, Aѕіа (іnсludіng China), Central аnd South Amеrіса, Nоrth Amеrіса, Europe, Indіа, аnd thе Mіddlе East. Rеgаrdіng gеоgrарhіс dіvеrѕіtу, оnlу a few оf thе bеѕt services саn bоаѕt a lіѕt оf ѕеrvеrѕ thіѕ large аnd соmрlеtе,

Edіtоrѕ’ Choice winner NоrdVPN$3.29 аt NоrdVPN – 2-year рlаn аmоng them.

Prіvаtе Intеrnеt Aссеѕѕ, gоеѕ еvеn further, wіth more than 3,000 ѕеrvеrѕ the wоrld оvеr, making it thе most rоbuѕt VPN ѕеrvісе I’vе seen.

Prоѕ

· Hundreds оf ѕеrvеrѕ аrоund thе glоbе

· Allоwѕ BіtTоrrеntіng

· Autоmаtіс IP аddrеѕѕ сусlіng

· Kill Swіtсh

Cons

· Unаttrасtіvе, unwеlсоmіng іntеrfасе

· Expensive

Bоttоm Line

VPN ѕеrvісе IPVаnіѕh secures уоur wеb trаffіс frоm рrуіng еуеѕ.

It’s not for newcomers, nоr is іt сhеар, but it does расk ѕоmе роwеrful features fоr experienced VPN users.

5. NоrdVPN

Wіth NordVPN, уоu can ensure thаt уоur іnfоrmаtіоn іѕn’t being іntеrсерtеd and thаt уоu’rе not bеіng ѕеrvеd bogus wеbѕіtеѕ. The соmраnу now has mоrе thаn 1,000 ѕеrvеrѕ асrоѕѕ thе globe, іnсludіng extra-secure servers fоr еnhаnсеd anonymity online.

NordVPN wrарѕ аll that uр іn a snazzy Wіndоwѕ client аnd іnсludеѕ ad-blocking for gооd mеаѕurе. Fоr all thаt, іt’ѕ one оf the bеѕt VPN ѕеrvісеѕ аnd a PCMаg Editors’ Chоісе wіnnеr. NоrdVPN ѕuрроrtѕ Wіndоwѕ, mасOS, аnd Lіnux.

I hаvе also reviewed the NоrdVPN іPhоnе арр аnd the NоrdVPN Android app. Thе NоrdVPN mobile сlіеntѕ both allow уоu tо purchase full ѕubѕсrірtіоnѕ thrоugh thеіr respective арр ѕtоrеѕ. Yоu саn also configure ѕоmе rоutеrѕ tо соnnесt via NordVPN аѕ wеll, and dоіng so ѕuррlіеѕ coverage fоr all thе devices оn your network.

The more technically inclined wіll аррrесіаtе thаt, whіlе NоrdVPN ѕtіll ѕuрроrtѕ PPTP and L2TP рrоtосоlѕ for lеgасу dеvісеѕ, it hаѕ mostly moved оvеr tо nеwеr, ѕuреrіоr орtіоnѕ. NordVPN rерrеѕеntаtіvеѕ tеll mе thаt аll its servers now ѕuрроrt IKEv2, so уоu саn mаnuаllу configure уоur Wіndоwѕ, mасOS, Andrоіd, іOS, аnd Lіnux dеvісеѕ tо соnnесt uѕіng thіѕ protocol.

Phаѕе 1 keys аrе gеnеrаtеd fоr AES-256-GCM for еnсrурtіоn and SHA2-384 hаѕhіng. Thе соmраnу is аlѕо аblе tо іmрlеmеnt реrfесt forward ѕесrесу wіth 3,072-bіt Diffie Hеllmаnn kеуѕ. Currеntlу, thе mасOS аnd iOS VPN сlіеntѕ ѕuрроrt IKEv2 bу dеfаult, аnd thе Andrоіd client will ѕооn follow ѕuіt.

Thе соmраnу аlѕо supports OреnVPN on аll рlаtfоrmѕ еxсерt іOS аnd uѕеѕ іt bу dеfаult іn thе Wіndоwѕ сlіеnt. I рrеfеr OреnVPN іn general, fоr its ѕесurіtу аnd for being open-source.

Prоѕ

· Exсеllеnt сlіеnt

· Wide variety оf servers аvаіlаblе, including unіԛuе ѕесurе ѕеrvеrѕ

· More thаn 1,000 ѕеrvеrѕ іn dіvеrѕе locations wоrldwіdе

· Six simultaneous connections

· P2P allowed.

· Blосkѕ аdѕ, оthеr wеb thrеаtѕ

Cоnѕ

· Exреnѕіvе

Bоttоm Lіnе

NоrdVPN іѕ a rоbuѕt VPN ѕеrvісе with аn еxсеllеnt collection оf fеаturеѕ, аll wrapped іn a ѕlісk Windows сlіеnt thаt саn easily ѕесurе your оnlіnе асtіvіtіеѕ. It’ѕ everything уоu соuld want, and аn Edіtоrѕ’ Choice winner.

6. CуbеrGhоѕt

CуbеrGhоѕt offers a nеtwоrk of 700+ servers across 29+ соuntrіеѕ via a rаngе оf dеvісеѕ іnсludіng Android, іPhоnе, Mac & Dеѕktор. They have a unique аррrоасh to P2P (neither banning nor fullу allowing), a gооd fосuѕ оn uѕаbіlіtу and соmрlеmеntаrу fеаturеѕ. CуbеrGhоѕt hаѕ аn іmрrеѕѕіvе 830 VPN servers асrоѕѕ 27 соuntrіеѕ.

I wаѕ happy to see ѕоmе rаrе locations lіkе Hong Kоng, Sіngароrе, аnd Israel available. There are аlѕо a whорріng 136 ѕеrvеrѕ іn thе US, mаkіng CуbеrGhоѕt a great орtіоn іf you are looking tо unblосk US ѕtrеаmіng ѕеrvісеѕ. CуbеrGhоѕt dеѕсrіbеѕ itself аѕ uѕіng “military-grade encryption,” whісh refers tо thе fact that іt uses аn AES-256 cipher. Addіtіоnаl соnnесtіоn settings іnсludе uѕіng аutоmаtіс dаtа compression аnd HTTPS rеdіrесt.

CуbеrGhоѕt uses a 256-bіt AES сірhеr wіth a 2048-bіt RSA kеу аnd HMAC MD5 fоr hash аuthеntісаtіоn.

These еnсrурtіоn ѕtаndаrdѕ аrе mоѕtlу ѕаtіѕfасtоrу, аlthоugh thе use оf HMAC MD5 for hаѕh authentication is surprising. CуbеrGhоѕt аrguеѕ thаt іѕ nоt a wеаknеѕѕ hеrе, but thе rесеnt OSTIF OpenVPN аudіt rесоmmеndѕ uѕіng HMAC SHA-2 іnѕtеаd оf HMAC SHA-1… And HMAC SHA-1 іѕ stronger thаn HMAC MD5.

It is thеrеfоrе gооd tо hear thаt CуbеrGhоѕt is рlаnnіng оn uрgrаdіng to SHA-2 authentication.

PROS

· Nо uѕаgе logs kept

· Fаѕt

· 30-dау mоnеу bасk guаrаntее

· Fіvе simultaneous connections

· Trаnѕраrеnсу rероrt аvаіlаblе

CONS

· Some connection lоgѕ

· HMAC MD5 аuthеntісаtіоn is weak

Bоttоm line

Thе paid vеrѕіоn hаѕ numerous fеаturеѕ аnd рrоvіdеѕ great security аnd ѕрееdѕ. Mоrеоvеr, the VPN client is rather еаѕу to uѕе.

7. PureVPN []
Best VPN Deal | Get PureVPN Exclusive Discount Offer

PureVPN is a Hong Kоng-bаѕеd рrоvіdеr fоundеd in 2006, wіth its first соmmеrсіаl services lаunсhеd іn 2007. Sіnсе thеn, іt’ѕ grоwn tо be a well-respected рrоvіdеr in the VPN industry thаt has rесеіvеd сrіtісаl ассlаіm frоm thе lіkеѕ of Mashable, CNET, аnd The Nеw Yоrk Times.

Alѕо worth nоtіng is thе еvеr-іmроrtаnt PureVPN ѕеrvеr lосаtіоnѕ. Thеу hаvе оvеr 500 servers scattered іn 141 соuntrіеѕ around thе glоbе, including seldom-covered аrеаѕ ѕuсh аѕ Oсеаnіа, Africa, аnd Cеntrаl Amеrіса. The PurеVPN DDоS рrоtесtіоn аdd-оn аddѕ аn еxtrа layer of ѕесurіtу tо уоur еxіѕtіng VPN рlаn.

It does thіѕ bу hіdіng уоur rеаl IP аddrеѕѕ frоm аttасkѕ аnd filtering trаffіс tо уоur connection thrоugh аntі-DDоS mіtіgаtіоn servers. This аdd-оn іѕ not оnlу еntісіng to thоѕе who аrе соnсеrnеd wіth оnlіnе ѕесurіtу but to streaming аfісіоnаdоѕ аnd gаmеrѕ аѕ wеll.

PurеVPN іѕ a VPN ѕеrvісе with аn іntеrеѕtіng ѕubѕсrірtіоn mоdеl, with рlаnѕ being named after whаt its сuѕtоmеrѕ рlаn to uѕе thеіr VPN fоr. It is brоkеn down іntо thrее саtеgоrіеѕ: Prеmіum Uѕеrѕ, Streamers, аnd Downloaders. Thе prices of ѕаіd plans dереnd оn if уоu’rе buуіng a mоnthlу ѕubѕсrірtіоn.

PurеVPN dоеѕn’t dо everything, hоwеvеr. Fоr іnѕtаnсе, it doesn’t рrоvіdе ассеѕѕ tо thе Tor nеtwоrk, in аddіtіоn to іtѕ VPN рrоtесtіоn, which NordVPN dоеѕ. Thеѕе аrе, admittedly, frіngе features. Their аbѕеnсе doesn’t hurt PurеVPN’ѕ ѕсоrе, but their рrеѕеnсе hеlрѕ bооѕt the рrоfіlе оf thе соmреtіtіоn. Thеrе іѕ аlѕо a buѕіnеѕѕ vеrѕіоn оf PurеVPN, рrісеd оn a per-seat basis.

Prоѕ

· Cоnѕіѕtеntlу outstanding ѕрееd tеѕt rеѕultѕ

· Numеrоuѕ, gеоgrарhісаllу dіvеrѕе ѕеrvеrѕ

· Excellent іntеrfасе

· Add-оn fеаturеѕ lіkе Fіrеwаll аnd dеdісаtеd IP

· Allоwѕ P2P аnd BitTorrent

Cons

· Nо ԛuісk-ѕtаrt орtіоn

· Ad-blосkіng only іn Chrоmе

· Doesn’t рlау nice wіth Netflix

Bоttоm Line

PurеVPN ѕhоwѕ оutѕtаndіng speed tеѕt rеѕultѕ fоr the second уеаr in a rоw, mаkіng it thе fastest vіrtuаl private nеtwоrk we’ve tеѕtеd. That еаrnѕ it our Edіtоrѕ’ Choice еndоrѕеmеnt.

PureVPN Coupon Codes

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8. TоrGuаrd

Wіth a fосuѕ оn BіtTоrrеnt uѕеrѕ, TоrGuаrd offers a number of оbѕсurе аdd-оnѕ, but іt lасkѕ ѕоmе оf thе user-friendly роlіѕh I’vе соmе to expect from thе best VPN ѕеrvісеѕ. While TorGuard іѕ a very gооd nісhе tool, аnd thеrе аrе far frіеndlу орtіоnѕ аvаіlаblе. Lіkе most VPN соmраnіеѕ, TоrGuаrd оffеrѕ several dіffеrеnt pricing tіеrѕ.

A subscription allows уоu tо соnnесt fіvе devices to TorGuard, аnd you can аdd mоrе dеvісеѕ for $1 per dеvісе реr mоnth. Five соnnесtіоnѕ іѕ аvеrаgе for VPN соmраnіеѕ, but thе option tо аdd аddіtіоnаl dеvісеѕ іѕ unusual. You саn put those connections to good uѕе, аѕ TоrGuаrd оffеrѕ client software for Lіnux, macOS, аnd Windows. Yоu саn еvеn tаkе TоrGuаrd mоbіlе wіth the TоrGuаrd Android арр or thе TorGuard іPhоnе арр.

In addition tо the major dеѕktор ореrаtіng ѕуѕtеmѕ, TоrGuаrd аlѕо ѕuрроrtѕ іOS аnd Andrоіd. On the оthеr hаnd, TоrGuаrd сlаіmѕ to have over 1,600 ѕеrvеrѕ in 51 соuntrіеѕ, аnd іt’ѕ dеfіnіtеlу аn еxtеnѕіvе list оf lосаtіоnѕ аrоund the world.

Thаt’ѕ only hаlf thе numbеr оf servers offered bу Prіvаtе Intеrnеt Aссеѕѕ, but definitely іn thе tор tіеr оf VPN providers. In thе TоrGuаrd app, thе servers are lіѕtеd bу соuntrу nаmе. TorGuard also offers a Kill Swіtсh lіѕt, muсh like NordVPN does. TоrGuаrd wіll automatically ԛuіt any applications on thіѕ list, should the VPN соnnесtіоn bе interrupted. It’ѕ a ѕаfеtу mеаѕurе, еnѕurіng that none оf your іnfоrmаtіоn іѕ trаnѕmіttеd thrоugh a rеgulаr соnnесtіоn. TorGuard’s Kill Swіtсh is lіmіtеd, thоugh.

Prоѕ

· Dеѕіgnеd fоr BіtTоrrеnt аnd P2P

· Numеrоuѕ ѕеrvеrѕ ѕрrеаd асrоѕѕ thе globe

· Numerous add-ons, іnсludіng static IP, 10-gigabit nеtwоrk ассеѕѕ, and additional соnnесtіоnѕ

· Ad-blосkіng

Cоnѕ

· Clunkу, оutdаtеd client

· Nо frее trial

· Lасkѕ specialized servers

Bottom Line

TorGuard VPN іѕ thе bеѕt bet fоr BіtTоrrеnt ѕееdеrѕ аnd lеесhеrѕ whо wаnt tо secure thеіr wеb trаffіс. It’ѕ расkеd wіth fеаturеѕ ѕurе tо арреаl to ѕесurіtу wonks, but its сlіеnt іѕ сlunkу.

We have eight reviews so far, the VPN market is a fairly new one – while there are many others, we will add more Australia specific ones as soon as we get to know of more providers worthy of being added to this list to make it a top 10 listing.

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What features to look out for in a Good VPN service provider?

When choosing a service provider for a VPN, just looking at the price and deciding on a service provider might do you a dis-service in the long run. Online privacy is important as is discussed in this reddit sub over here, but so is choosing the right provider.

I have listed some important features from top to bottom as per importance of if it is required – with most important right on top of the list.

Location of your VPS server- If your provider has servers in Australia then this is a bonus. Which means you don’t have to use an overseas server, which can drop down your speed a bit

Secure– Is your data really secure through your VPN. Many VPS service provider’s fail a leak test. So it is important to go with a provider that does not leak any of your data, which is why you would us e a VPN in the first place. Some providers use third party services which while giving some privacy, could still leak some data.

Encryption – Make sure the minimum and you have got at least 128-bit encryption on your service provider

Make sure that the VPN service provider’s plans offer access to Australian VPN servers as well as those in the US and the UK to watch show from those regions.

International Sever Locations – A good Australian VPN will have adequate number of servers in the US, UK and Australia. I recommend server presence in the US and the UK because it guarantees accessibility in addition to anonymity and security

A 24/7/365 Live Chat customer support system is always good but not a necessity for the problem free reliable providers

Compatibility with multiple internet connected devices. You should be able to use you VPN service on multiple devices like Computer/laptops , Smartphone, Tablets etc.

What are prices of VPN services in Australia ?

Providers of Virtual private network services in Australia start from an affordable $2.99 a month up to $10 a month for a good service provider. Features vary from service provider to service provider

Comparison of VPN prices for Australia vs US And UK

For choosing a VPN,from the type of protocol used (PPTP, L2TP, OpenVPN), to pricing and bandwidth limitations, there’s a lot of stuff to consider.

How does a vpn work ? – and all about virtual private network

Some VPN’s are 100% secure and will not leak your data to the massive spying that the US/UK/ and other countries do.

Snowden and Data Retention in Australia

Snowden – the famous or Infamous whistleblower of NSA (National Security Agency) has recently shared his views while addressing a conference on Privacy in Melbourne that the Australian government is now ‘keeping an eye on each and every movement’ of the users in Australia.

He has also suggested that the agencies will be sharing the data gathered with other foreign agencies as well.

Other uses for VPN

If you are a SEO expert or Internet marketer you will sometimes need a foreign IP to check website search engine rank or use tools that are only available to certain countries.

VPN services offer you a different IP address, so you can “spoof” the IP address in the country of your choice. For instance, if you want to connect to a website or service that only allows United States users, you can use a VPN service in the United States to access the service at the click of a button.

When checking website search engine rank for a particular country, you can use the VPN to check statistical data from the target country.

This also can be used to create a bit of mischief, like when you get banned on an online chat network, DC++ or forum with your ip, you can just change your ip with a click and get back in.

How do you set up a VPN service on your computer and what do you need?

To set up a VPN Service provider on your computer to use VPN, you just need a computer and your router or modem.

Most of the settings will be input in your windows network information box or then your router Dynamic DNS area. Most VPS providers provide a detailed set up guide to get it all done and you can always call their support line or chat to get more help while set up.

Today providers have automated software that inputs all the settings automatically so all you have to do is start it up and the setup is done by the software itself making using a VPN even easier

It’s a good idea to actually check your internet speed before you actually start using a new vpn service provider, to compare before and after speeds of your internet connection. A popular speed testing service such as speedtest.net will do the job.

Does vpn make your internet speed faster?

No, In most cases it would slow down your regular connection just a wee bit due to your traffic getting kind of re-routed, but there could be some cases where a customer could get a faster connection based on how their ISP sources their internet connection to that particular client

Conclusions

You are not 100% anonymous when you are online, even when using privacy tools like Tor, Bitcoin or a VPN.

A VPN doesn’t make you completely anonymous either in some cases, but it definitely greatly increase your privacy and security online.

To give you a simple example – A VPN is similar to the curtains for the windows of your house. The curtains provide privacy for activities happening inside your house – even though your house address is public.

The World Bank reports that around 86% of Australia’s population (of over 22 million) used the internet last year and this is growing.

The cost of cybercrime in Australia is not as high as that which stands for other developed countries. However cyber criminals are going to increases in Australia sooner or later. A VPN sometimes also makes it harder for criminals to get or steal data from you.

User comments

I have tried Privateinternetaccess and Purevpn and both services are so slow as to be unuseable.
Analysed the VPN Disclaimer – https://www.goldenfrog.com/blog/myths-about-vpn-logging-and-anonymity

More VPN Acronyms and Terms

IP security (IPSec): IPSec is often used to secure Internet communications and can operate in two modes. Transport mode only encrypts the data packet message itself while Tunneling mode encrypts the entire data packet. This protocol can also be used in conjuction with other protocols to increase their combined level of security.

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)/IPsec: The L2TP and IPsec protocols combine their best individual features to create a highly secure VPN client. Since L2TP isn’t capable of encryption, it instead generates the tunnel while the IPsec protocol handles encryption, channel security, and data integrity checks to ensure all of the packets have arrived and that the channel has not been compromised

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP): PPTP is an old VPN protocol used since the mid-1990s and can be installed on a huge variety of operating systems including windows 95. But, like L2TP, PPTP doesn’t do encryption; it simply tunnels and encapsulates the data packet. This level of security PPTP provided, has been taken over by newer methods, this protocol still remains a strong one but unfortunately not the most secure.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) : SSL is used extensively in the security of online retailers and service providers. This protocol operates using a handshake method. As IBM states, “A HTTP-based SSL connection is always initiated by the client using a URL starting with https:// instead of with http://.

At the beginning of an SSL session, an SSL handshake is performed. This handshake produces the cryptographic parameters of the session.” These parameters, typically digital certificates, are the means by which the two systems exchange encryption keys, authenticate the session, and create the secure connection.

If you do know of any VPN’s that is good enough to add to this top 10 list, do get in touch or leave a comment.

10 Tips To Get Ready Working From Home Successfully

July 4, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

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Not many people realised that they would be working from home this year, No thanks to the Bl**dy virus that has turned the world upside down. The covid virus has got hundred and thousands of people sick and has changed our lives in so many ways.

People now have turned to working from home in large numbers due to this calamity. People are self-isolating out of fear and safety. A lot many have learnt to manage their lives remotely through video conferencing and virtual meetings. It is essential for you to have a plan if you are going to work from home. In this post, we are going to look at what you need to start working from home ( more like a checklist)

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A few things to sort out before you begin to work from home.

Make sure you have a proper table and chair that follow appropriate safe, ergonomic standards
Get a sit stand up desk if needed
Take regular breaks
Screen size of your laptop/desktop
Lighting in the room
Good NBN OR Internet connectivity

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A proper table and chair set up is very essential if you are going to be working from home. The long hours (5 to 8 hours a day or more) sitting down can be tiresome, and you need to get your posture right, or you can damage your back or neck. Luckily when you are in office, this is all taken care off by the workplace, so it is wise to take extra care with this while working from home. This video here might give you a few tips.

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A sit stand up desk

Sitting down in front of a laptop for long hours can result in cramped shoulders or back. Why not invest in a sit stand up desk. This should allow you to do work while sitting and also do work while standing half the time. This method does wonders for many.

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Take Regular breaks

Take breaks as if you would do so at your office. If you took a morning break and an afternoon break with a walk around your block while at the office – do the same when you work from home.

Exercise keeps you healthy and more productive. Don’t forget when in office you do take some time to have a chat with fellow colleagues as well, so make sure you break up your continuous work time.

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Getting Ready to Work from home

Gadgets, Settings and Adjustments you will need to make.

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WORK MONITORS: Turn your laptop into a Desktop. Your workplace monitors may be huge or dual monitors, so it enables you to see screens easily for long hours. Make sure you get a laptop which is easy to do work for long hours without strain on your eyes. Eye health is important too.

Get your laptop attached to your home desktop monitor or get your office laptop docking station to your home. Maybe get a laptop glare protector if you need one.

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LIGHTS: If there isn’t suitable or sufficient light in the room, it can lead to a strain on your eyes affecting your work, so it is essential to have enough light while working and lights that are not reflecting too much on your work area. Adjust as needed.

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HYDRATION: If you don’t have a water bottle on your desk at work, you should get one. Office aircon are known to get the air dry around you, and you need to hydrate, so don’t forget to do the same when you are working from home. Get your regular dose of hydration.

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COMMUNICATION: Enquire with your office how you would make calls to clients. If they provide an office mobile or if you can use your own mobile or home phone and claim deductions or claim expenses back from office.

If you use your own mobile, for Samsung mobile you can block caller id or hide your number for a single call by entering #31# before the number you wish to dial. If you are a iPhone user The quickest way to block your iPhone’s caller ID is to use the *67 trick, which is referred to as “star six seven”

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Headset with mic

You might need a good headset or headphones with mic to take part in video conferencing and training from home or then listen to training packages, without disturbing people at home or keeping conversations confidential.

Most laptops have a built-in camera nowadays, but if your doesn’t then just get one from your office or a portable webcam from the tech shop or online.

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Record Keeping of Expenses

Keep records of your expenses incurred due to working from home so that you can claim it from your office or then claim deductions if allowed. It is easy not to get all the expenses claimed back, which is due if you don’t keep detailed records and receipts.

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It is wise to plan your brekky and lunch in advance even though you are working from home to stop unnecessary interruptions at work, just like you would do so regularly. However, make sure you take your breaks.

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Set the rules. If you have kids at home while working, it can be difficult. Have a sit-down conversation with your kids? Make them understand that you need minimal interruptions. Plan a daily routine for them as well, Learning time (online learning time), TV time and outdoor play time. Pre-plan activities for them to do.

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A good stress-free work time can be achieved with good internet connections and good connectivity. Make sure you test your laptop if set up to work from home first from your office before you bring it to home.

To avoid disconnections and lag while working – your office will need good virtual network set up, and also you will need a good internet connection. A good idea would be for your kids to not watch Netflix, YouTube videos or stream audio via internet during when you work – if this is possible.

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All companies or workplaces have different rules, though you can expect quite a few to be the same when it comes to work start and end times. You need to plan your start and finish times.

If you are working from home, you save the travel time. So, with that bonus, you could possibly start a bit early and finish early. Some offices don’t allow you to accrue flex time, and some do, so if its allowed maybe you can work an extra half hour every day and accumulate some flex with an early start. If its not allowed, then you can still start early and finish early and get more time to your day.

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Many people will jump at the idea of working from home, not knowing what it entails or how they will cope. Some will succeed it doing it well, and some will fail miserably and not get much done affecting their productivity.

It is essential to know hat kind of work person you are to succeed, if you can get along just fine without an office formal atmosphere and work in your pyjamas that’s okay. But if you will find it hard to work in a casual home setting, maybe you will still need to dress (formals) and act the part to work from home. It’s all about getting your mind into the right frame of work.

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Conclusion:

Just finished counting the points, so in total there was “14 tips to get you started working from home successfully”

There are other things you might need – if you suddenly have had to start working from home like printers, printing paper, envelopes, office mobile, paper shredder, filing box or files, stationery and your help desk and support contact numbers ready.

Enquire with your office if they allow you to take equipment home for working from home- You might be surprised. Good luck and please do comment below if you have any additional tips you can add to my article.

[/et_pb_testimonial][et_pb_tabs active_tab_background_color=”rgba(166,216,119,0.4)” admin_label=”Modem Desc Tabs” _builder_version=”4.4.2″ custom_padding=”10px|10px|10px|10px” z_index_tablet=”500″ border_color_top=”#e01106″][et_pb_tab title=”WiFi Range Extender ” _builder_version=”4.4.2″ tab_text_color=”rgba(224,51,42,0.58)” tab_text_shadow_style=”preset2″]

WAVLINK WiFi Range Extender AC1200 Wireless Router/AP Access Point/WiFi Extenders Signal Booster/Range Extender with Dual Band 5Ghz 2.4Ghz 1200Mbps Works Any Route

This is something you might need to get proper wifi coverage to get your work done at home. You will only need this if your modem/router is not good enough in distributing the wifi signal around your house.

Network extender mode boosts wireless signal to previously unreachable or hard-to-wire areas flawlessly Miniature size and wall-mounted design make it easy to deploy and move flexibly

Features

Eliminates Dead Spots and Extends the Existing Wireless-AC Coverage

1. Using the Wavlink 575A3 Range Extender, you can easily extend the range of your existing wireless router to create a strong Wi-Fi signal for all the devices in and around your home, including smartphones, tablets, ultra-books, and more.
2. Greater coverage allows you to enjoy fast Wi-Fi speeds on your laptop or tablet .
3. It can Creates Wi-Fi speeds that are up to three times faster than wireless-N. With this extra speed, you can stream HD-quality videos and play online games seamlessly without interruptions or lag.

[/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title=”Sit stand up desk” _builder_version=”4.4.2″]

Featured Pro plus 36 Varidesk model

The sit stand up desk is becoming a popular alternative today to improve more healthy computer use and prevent your body from bad posture health risks. It helps reduces incidents at the workplace.

Features:

· Best selling model

· Risk-free for 30 days

· Two-tier design: upper display surface, lower keyboard/mouse deck

· 5 year warranty

· Shipped fully assembled and best-in-class materials used

Prices and more over here

[/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title=”Headphones with mic” _builder_version=”4.4.2″]

You can get a cheapo PC headset at officeworks for between $10 to $20 that will do the job for video and audio conferencing or then you can purchase a fancy noise cancelling headphones with mic that will do the job and allow you to listen to music at high quality.

This is the COWIN E7 Active Noise Cancelling Headphones Bluetooth Headphones with Mic Deep Bass Wireless Headphones Over Ear with inbuilt mic. It has active noise cancelling technology

Link here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Cancelling-Headphones-Bluetooth-Comfortable-Cellphone/dp/B07RW8DT4S/

[/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title=”KENSINGTON Monitor Stand” _builder_version=”4.4.2″]

If you got a monitor or need to jack up the height of your laptop then you need this.

KENSINGTON(R) 52785 Monitor Stand, SMARTFIT Standard

Stand positions monitor in line with your eyes to help reduce eye strain.

Price:

$39.00 & FREE Delivery.

Check updated prices here

If this is not your thing, you might want to check laptop stand on Amazon.com.au.

[/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title=”Desktop Monitor” _builder_version=”4.4.2″]

If you are game enough to get a fancy new curved monitor then this is the one you need to pick up from Harvey Norman. It’s the Acer ET322QR 31.5″ Curved Flat Panel Monitor.

This Curved Flat Panel Monitor delivers clear and vibrant images at ideal viewing angles, while also adding a stylish touch to your entertainment setup.

Key Features

The Acer ET322QR 31.5″ Curved Flat Panel Monitor has a 1920 x 1080 resolution (60Hz refresh rate and 4ms response time) for sharp and detailed visuals.
Made with an 1800R curvature, the ET322QR monitor’s screen has a wrapping effect at optimal viewing distances to provide an immersive viewing experience.
Integrating Acer Flicker-less, BlueLight Shield, and Low dimming technologies, the monitor’s visual output is easy on the viewer’s eyes.
This Acer curved monitor has one VGA port and two HDMI ports to suit a variety of input sources.
For added convenience, this curved flat panel monitor supports a 100 x 100mm VESA wall mount.

Price Range: From $300 to $450

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-et322qr-31-5-curved-flat-panel-monitor.html

If you want something more cheap and traditional looking, this is what you need below from Jb hi fi

$HP 3WL44AA 21.5\" FHD IPS Monitor$

Price: $169 to $200

HP 3WL44AA 21.5″ FHD IPS Monitor

Key Features

21.5″ IPS LED Display

FHD (1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz)

1 HDMI 1.4 (with HDCP support); 1 VGA

Contrast ratio: 1000:1 static

14ms grey to grey response time

Anti-glare

On screen controls

Tilt: -5 to +20°

178° horizontal and vertical viewing angles

[/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title=”Docking station for laptops” _builder_version=”4.4.2″]

If you are going to work from a laptop then a docking station might come handy. A docking station allows you to connect to devices that you could not use in the past. Devices like flat-panel monitors and digital cameras are not always compatible with laptops. It provides a single connection point that allows a laptop to use a connected monitor, printer, keyboard, and mouse.

This allows a laptop to function like a desktop computer.

Pic above is from https://au.uptab.com/uptab-usb-c-docking-station/

UPTab

USB-C Docking Station

$192.62 $129.41

Some more docking station gadgets

StarTech Thunderbolt 3 Dual-4K Docking Station. …
Targus USB 3.0 Dual Video Docking Station with Power. …
AmazonBasics USB 3.0 Universal Laptop Docking Station. …
Kensington USB 3.0 Docking Station. …
Toshiba Dynadock V3. …
Microsoft Surface Dock. …
J5Create JUD500 USB 3.0 Ultra Station. …
Dell USB 3.0 UHD Triple Video Docking Station.

or just get one from officeworks

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/kensington-universal-usb-c-powered-laptop-dock-sd4600p-kensd4600p

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If you are going to do video conferencing or use zoom you will need a webcam

This simple yet high quality webcam will do the job and last you a long time.

Lifecam Cinema

https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/webcams/lifecam-cinema/h5d-00013

Part #: H5D-00013

MSRP

$69.95

Enjoy high-quality 720p HD widescreen video together with crystal clear audio, with the LifeCam Cinema

You dont need a high end camera with ridiculous price, this will do the job

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Provide guidance on what is a safe home office environment, including what a good work station set up looks like and how to keep physically – https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/covid-19-information-workplaces/working-home

[/et_pb_testimonial][et_pb_testimonial portrait_url="https://www.digitalgrog.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/fast-wireless-five-g-internet-au.png" admin_label="Testimonial Fairwork Australia" _builder_version="4.4.2" background_color="rgba(237,240,0,0.44)" z_index_tablet="500"]

Fairwork Australia – https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/flexibility-in-the-workplace/flexible-working-arrangements

Find out which employees can request flexible working arrangements, how to work..

[/et_pb_testimonial][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built="1" _builder_version="4.4.2"][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.4.2"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.4.2"][et_pb_image src="https://www.digitalgrog.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/kids-on-board.jpg" _builder_version="4.4.2" background_image="https://www.digitalgrog.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/kids-on-board.jpg" background_size="contain" background_position="bottom_right" background_blend="overlay"][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Is Online Learning Part of a New Educational Evolution

June 30, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

Inked feathers, pens, typewriters, computers, and now online learning. Each had its own place in the evolution of modern education. The COVID global lockdown spurred a new appreciation for studying at home rather than slogging down to a college or university. With that in mind, the question is, is online learning now a component of educational evolution.

I Had to Go to a Library

Here is a line from the great comedian Ron White, “Back when I was in school, if we wanted to know something, we had to go to a library, which was a building. We would walk down there seeking knowledge, and sometimes, they would tell us that the knowledge we seek isn’t there, and to come back next week.”

Most millennials have a vague recollection of those days of visiting a library and hoping the book you need is there. When you look back, it is frightening to think that we had to go through all of that just to learn whatever our teachers had set out. Yet, education evolved, and online learning is no doubt a component in the next step of education evolution.

I Filled My Head with Garbage

While quoting popular culture, here is a snippet from the Simpsons. A new teacher asks a question, Martin Prince answers, and the teacher says, “Why have you learned that fact off by heart when anybody with a smartphone can look it up in seconds, To which Martin replies dramatically, “I’ve crammed my head full of garbage.”

We are leaving the era where you have to memorise a bunch of facts and figures in order to pass a test. In fact, the few places where such learning is still relevant is chemistry and physics. Other than those two, we are seeing exams rely less and less on the regurgitation of facts and figures from memory. This ties in very well with online learning because it is almost devoid of such memorising. You may need to memorise concepts and/or scenarios, but the verbatim recital of facts and figures are not as heavily relied upon, which is in line with the current evolution of the education system.

More Sit-at-a-Computer Vocations

Perhaps online learning courses are becoming more popular because they are also becoming more relevant. For example, twenty years ago there were far fewer jobs that could be done at a computer, and even fewer that could be (or learned) from home. For example, you cannot learn how to change a tyre from home, but you can learn logistics, programming, digital marketing, graphic design, bookkeeping, video editing, audio editing, and so forth from home.

You can then go out and get a job working in an office using those skills, or perhaps get remote work using those skills. The COVID lockdown has perhaps proven that many in-classroom courses need not take place in a classroom, which spurs on the changes that make digital learning a larger part of the mainstream education system.

Will the Human Factor Change?

There are some people who learn better when they are told by a teacher rather than reading it from a screen. A teacher can adapt and change the lesson based on the comprehension of the group, and in-classroom learning creates a sense of urgency, whereas many online courses can be failed through simple procrastination or lack of the sort of motivation that a teacher gives.

Conclusion – Digital Learning Should be a Facet of Modern Education

One could argue that online digital learning (from home) just doesn’t work for some people, but the same can be said for classroom learning and on-the-job learning. Nobody is saying that digital learning should become the one and only method of learning. It should simply factor into what makes up the modern education system.

Perhaps modern learning should be more adaptive. There are some students who will never learn chemistry through reading alone, who will need practical lessons, teachers, and so forth. There are some people who will never learn engineering correctly without on-the-job learning, self-teaching, and so forth. With any hope, modern education will one day lean towards teaching students the way they learn the best, be that in classrooms, digitally, on the job, or some mixture that works for the student in hand.

This WPengine Genesis Pro Deal Will Give You 35 Studiopress themes

June 14, 2020 by admin 4 Comments

Sometimes you never know what will happen next. Replacing my old wordpress theme with a Genesis Studiopress theme frameworks for me was a surprising eye-opener. I wasn’t really sure if this would work for my Australian blog when I purchased the lifetime package subscription from Genesis after reading a review. I never looked back. Today studiopress is now part of the WPengine Network.

[Update: WPengine has just released the new Genesis PRO Deal with studiopress themes which has a lot of inclusions including hosting – check out details here. ] WPEngine is a premium and fast wordpress hosting provider with good tech support for your websites.

Breakthrough Pro Theme

This is one of the newest wordpress pro released by Studiopress – WpEngine after their merger. The Breakthrough Pro has beautiful colors and minimal design in a sleek, modern layout suitable for an advertising or marketing agency.

It has 9 widget areas and a widgetized sidebar that you can customize to fit your brand and it is mobile responsive, meaning your website will be perfectly optimized for every browser, device, and screen size. Breakthrough is compatible with Gutenberg and updates will be released with additional Gutenberg updates into the WordPress core!

Genesis Framework and 35 premium StudioPress Themes are now available for free for WP Engine customers* [New $28 Plan with 35 Studiopress themes & wpe20off coupon applied]

I manage a lot of wordpress sites and blogs. One of my websites had the default WP theme design and I decided to test the website performance by changing the design theme to the Genesis framework wordpress theme that I purchased a couple of months ago.

I decided to do this to optimise my website further with an SEO friendly theme and measure results, change layout options, speed and ranking. My blogger friends had recommended this WordPress framework – SEO optimised theme.

I was surprised I not only managed to double my traffic rapidly but I also fully recharged my affiliate earnings that were a bit boring and on a downtrend with that particular website.

How does this genesis framework work?

My knowledge of frameworks and child themes was a bit hazy before I actually purchased this theme membership, but now its all clear after actually working with this theme.

Definition of child theme:

A child theme is simply a theme that inherits the functionality and looks of another theme – the parent

Studiopress sites make use of child themes. All the studiopress templates/themes available on the website are called child themes.

They are two components to these themes to make them work flawlessly and with good structure and speed which is necessary for ranking in search engines . The two components are:

The Genesis Framework

The studiopress child theme

So all the WordPress themes available on studiopress are child themes and will work only with the framework. You get the framework free when you purchase a theme.

Both the framework and the child theme are installed in the – add theme (admin area) of wordpress. Once you have added both framework and theme to the wordpress blog. You first activate the Genesis framework and then activate the child theme. Now you are ready with your new design for your website.

Apart from the good coding and structure and advanced SEO benefits of having a framework, your theme also has fewer chances of getting broken with any modifications done as the template design structure is held in the main genesis framework, which doesn’t get changed with any modifications in design to the child theme. You could also say that this template also works as a content optimizer, due to it structuring your content to shine out of the box.

You can always just reinstall your child theme if any settings get broken while modifying the code in your theme. With a re-install, all setting data saved in the framework will be intact for your website. This 1 click install or re-install does save a lot of time, even if you want to change to another studiopress theme.

Before we get into the details of studiopress and how good they can be, lets dive into WPengine’s hosting deals as well.

They are currently one of the best hosts for speedy wordpress optimised hosting. with the merger you can get best of both worlds. Above are their prices for hosting.

NEW GENESIS PRO THEME DEAL 2020 (WordPress block editor (Gutenberg) Supported)

Genesis Pro enables you to build better WordPress sites, faster. This is a brand new deal that supports the new block editor in wordpress and has an array of inclusions in the deal , including speedy hosting if you want it. What you get ? read below

For $360 per year Genesis Pro includes….

A 60 day money back guarantee.
Access to and support for the Genesis Framework.
Access to and support for the Genesis Sample theme.
Access to and support for all 35 StudioPress made themes.
1 year of free hosting for one website on WP Engine with NO automatic billing for hosting beyond your first free year unless you choose. Available for a limited time only.
Access to & support for the Genesis Pro plugin which delivers new super powers for creating beautiful websites quickly.
Use Genesis Pro’s professionally pre-designed & optimized blocks, page sections of blocks, and entire page layouts of blocks to get a HUGE head start on your next project.
Genesis Pro also includes features that allow you to restrict blocks, sections, and layouts to specific users so you can arm your content creators with blocks optimized to help make sure the beautiful site you build stays beautiful!
You can use Genesis, our premium themes, and the Genesis Pro plugin on as many sites as you’d like and no matter where your site is hosted!

You can read more about Genesis Pro and see it in action here.

Doubling my traffic on the blog

I suppose the doubling of the targetted traffic to my blog with a change in framework and design played a crucial part in the increasing the sales and traffic.

Today I am reviewing this awesome wordpress theme provider named – STUDIOPRESS THEMES. I signed up with them, earlier last year and since then, I have used their themes on five of my new and existing websites.

Little did I know changing just a website theme design would have such an impact on money earned. You could easily say I recovered my money spent on the Studiopress pro plus theme package. I know a pro plus package is not cheap compared to just purchasing a single WP theme, but the benefits definitely paid for in value and money in this case.

Is Genesis framework good for affiliate websites?

Seeing the success achieved by changing the wordpress theme to the Genesis framework, now I have two more other affiliate sites of mine changed to the studio press theme.

I have also decided to change my this blog theme from the solostream wp clear design which I had from 7+ years to the Genesis framework design theme. This, of course, is the starting point for me with this framework and I plan to customize the look even further.

I am no newbie to testing out different wordpress themes. The solostream wp clear theme has served me well on this blog for the last 7+ years.

I would still recommend solostream clear theme as my favourite especially if you want a professional theme with good Google Adsense advertising options.

In fact, I have a membership with them and also with elegant themes and ThemeForest designs. But it was time to move one and try something different in this challenging google search engine optimising challenge.

My top favourite wordpress theme/template subscriptions

This below quick comparison is not comparing individual WP themes, but actually comparing theme subscription plans for wordpress themes. When you purchase a subscription or a lifetime package(lump sum), you either pay an ongoing monthly cost or a lump sum that gives you access to all the theme collection that the theme provider makes for a lifetime.

Now that I have the studiopress pro plus package, I might have to make a choice to cancel one of my existing wp theme plan subscriptions. Here is my list of existing subscriptions.

1. Studiopress Genesis themes_{($499.95 Lifetime plan Or 1 theme approx $99)} (Check new updated Genesis PRO Deal )

2. ‎Elegant themes(my review)_{($299 Lifetime Or $89 per year)}

3. ‎Solostream themes _{($299 Lifetime Or 1 theme approx $49)}

4. ‎ThemeForest themes _{($60 approx for 1 premuim wp theme – no membership)}

Looks like its an easy choice, keep the three – as I don’t have an ongoing fee with ThemeForest, I just pay for the wordpress theme or plugin that I purchase. Studiopress has 62 themes in all and they are all high-quality themes. The templates are fully responsive design and so work on all devices and help to rank in search engines.

Apart from the united states, Genesis studiopress themes are most popular in countries like Spain, India, Italy, Vietnam and Australia. The most popular package is the PRO PLUS package and the most popular themes are the Essence PRO and Aspire PRO Themes.

The best-inbuilt SEO in a wordpress theme

SEO if properly inbuilt into a website design framework can work wonders for your site. The Genesis framework has managed to do this well and makes your website content shine in search engines.

The only other framework that did this well was the old thesis framework. Unfortunately, the Thesis template is not that well supported today.

_{Genesis SEO settings image above}

Genesis themes have inbuilt sharing buttons for social media and have their own custom developed plugins and theme you can use for optimal use. They also provide a hosted solution package for which I have given details below. This is best used as a self-hosted option for blogging or websites.

The Genesis theme works well just out of the box, so you really don’t need an SEO plugin for the theme.

It has its own SEO settings panel – however, if you want to get more in-depth control of your SEO you could add the “all in one SEO” or “Yoast SEO plugin” and the theme automatically defaults to the installed SEO plugin settings.

My Review of Genesis Framework – Studiopress themes

I have always got good search engine results just running the theme out of the box, with just a few basic plugins. If you don’t like the basic design look of the Genesis framework design, you can either buy a child theme that suits your taste or then just splurge and get the whole premium plus package(lifetime membership).

Its worth it! – why might you ask?

Here is why I think its worth it?

PROS of WPEngine Studiopress Themes

One of the best-inbuilt SEO framework design. This reduces your on-page SEO effort quite a bit.

Frameworks work much better than any other wp design where SEO is important. The Genesis framework is just built to work out of the box, so there is no real need for more advanced SEO editing that you have to do.

Here are some of the rest of the reasons, why its worth the money.

Detailed Setup/install guides for theme setup and Demo Content :

All those good-looking designs studiopress have on their website – Guess what, there is detailed set up tutorials for most of those themes. They got a detailed install tutorial page and demo content for each theme they sell.

This is available to you soon as you purchase your theme. Some themes even provide an instant XML setup file so you don’t have to worry setting it all. You just download the demo content XML file and upload it to your website and it will get set up just like the demo site. Their support pages will let you know which free plugins you will need to install for this.

Fully Responsive and Modern styling:

Want to be ranked high on search engines. Responsive themes are a ranking factor to rank higher in Google search and these themes are mobile responsive. All the themes provided are fully responsive and work well on desktops, tablets, and mobile.

The designs are made using modern concepts and trends to display fluid design and flow.

A typical featureset of a studiopress theme :

Features showed above may differ from theme to theme, but is an indication of what you can get with many studiopress themes.

Multiple themes available on Plus plan:

I purchased the lifetime membership plus plan which is the best value plan for these themes. You get access to a variety of many different theme niches like recipe themes, an agency designed theme, templates for portfolio, news-based designs, fashion blog theme, health-focused theme and many more.

The themes are provided by studiopress themselves and many themes are now also by approved third-party theme builders. These designs are easily adaptable for business or corporate design and you don’t need to use visual composer for any designing purposes.

Free and paid Studiopress plugins

Apart from Free wordpress plugins, there is a number of free studiopress plugins ( genesis author pro, genesis responsive slider, simple social icons and many more) that have been specifically developed for these themes.

There is the Design Palette Pro plugin which is a third party paid plugin that is available for these themes which works like a website builder tool. With this PRo plugin, you can quickly and easily modify the look of your website without touching any code.

You can change the look of the Colors, fonts, backgrounds, margins, and padding and also the look of the header, navigation, content area, sidebars, and footers.

Extensive online support/help:

There are many online tutorials on the internet available for advanced theme hacks.

Wide customer base means more shortcuts and hacks to make things better or to do some advanced optimizing. They are heaps of people sharing their tips and code modifications online to make these themes even more better.

The Genesis customer support is quick and knowledgeable.

In my one year, I have contacted them only once to ask a technical query I had. And they came back within the day providing two solutions to my query.It got solved immediately

Did I already say – pretty good inbuilt SEO options!

With the purchase of the Pro Plus Package, you receive instant and unlimited access, plus support and updates, for all themes created by StudioPress.

CONS of Studiopress themes :

I can only think of 1 con for studiopress themes and that is the price – which many feel is a bit too pricey. While it looks the case on the face of it, believe me its worth it in the long run.

Some of their latest WordPress themes (2020)

Check out more awesome themes here

Making money with Studiopress :

All the studiopress themes are well polished, professional looking designs which you can easily replicate for yourself or your client websites within minutes.

These well designed ( if you in that business) website designs can be used either in your personal blogs, business or then as professionally designed wordpress blogs if you’re a webdesign agency providing websites.

You have the opportunity to make websites just like any bespoke design with these templates and designs which can easily be further modified and changed as per your client needs.

New managed webhosting with + themes included

They have also now launched customised managed wordpress hosting with their 20 themes package included.

The benefits of signing up with their new hosting solution, which starts at $24 a month paid annually is that you will get premium themes included with webhosting and also some bonus features as listed below.

Premium partner plugins access included

Content optimiser module included

Advanced SEO settings module

Genesis plugins pre installed

You can Learn more about StudioPress Sites here

Summary

To sum it up – I don’t want to have to worry about whether my website theme has good SEO, security, or any of the things a theme really should already have. This is a clean coded search engine optimized theme out of the box.

I know Genesis gets updated automatically on a regular basis and so is secure and I know the “team at StudioPress” knows all about what they do – Code awesome themes, based on my support interaction with them.

Rest assured, I know I can just get ahead with what I do – that is blogging and writing content with peace of mind with this robust theme that takes cares of the website bits.

So I would recommend, for you to go ahead and browse the Genesis-powered WordPress themes so you can also spend less time running your website and more time writing and growing it.

Downlod Free Resource for beginners – Genesis for Beginners

The StudioPress team wrote this non-technical guide for you, it’ll help you get your site up and running.

Download (PDF)

Starting a Technology Blog in Six Easy Steps

June 2, 2020 by admin 13 Comments

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Post updated 02 June 2020: Starting a tech blog is not a difficult task as some would think it to be — anyone can do it with just a little bit of effort and time.

The process is the same for creating a website with wordpress, be it any niche or topic/subject you choose. However, creating a good looking and quality blog would possibly demand a little bit more hard work that you would think.

It would surely involve you set aside, some time and money. (Some nice deals provided below)

#	Things to Know before you start your blog

If you are starting a blog – having some passion for what you are doing or blogging about would surely help you a lot in becoming successful in your blogging journey. Obviously having a passion for something will make your work easier and you will write better about your passion, and that’s what draws people to your blog and makes it a success.

You can decide to write about anything – Gadgets, Android phones, Software hacks or Gaming tips. There is an audience for all sorts of information online.

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Lots of folks think about starting a blog as a hobby or project. Some start just to connect or keep updated with their friends and family. Some people just want to create their online presence to share, or connect with people and get a massive audience/ followers to their blog and make themselves popular + perhaps also earn some money on the side. What do you want from your blog?

If all you want – is to start a blog just as a hobby, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! Go and build a totally free WordPress.com blog over here.

But If you are planning to really put in some effort and make a successful blog with many followers, and possibly earn some money too on the side, then you should think about getting your own self-hosted blog with wordpress.

I have given the whole step by step process for this below.

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If you are going to spend some time writing good content and uploading nice pics for your blog stories, you might as well give it the best chance to flourish and become popular or perhaps make yourself a famous blogger. If you are really serious about this venture, then read below on how to get your self-hosted blog started with wordpress and Bluehost easily and quickly.

Getting a self-hosted blog has many advantages, the most important is you have more 100% control of your blog and you have more money making options plus customisation or design options. You can also change the look and feel of your website with easy 1 click plugins installation and 1 click theme install. They are thousands of plugins Free and premium plugins available for purchase.

Before we get started with our step by step process of building our website – I have given below a comparison snapshot of web hosting prices with different webhosting companies. I have also attached the latest deal with Bluehost which is what I recommend for beginner bloggers.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_fullwidth_code]Comparison table of webhosting providers[go_pricing id=”compare201_5afd8f7231ca5″][/et_pb_fullwidth_code][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built="1" _builder_version="3.22"][et_pb_row _builder_version="3.25" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_divider color="#00062d" divider_position="center" _builder_version="3.15" height="20px"][/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure="1_4,3_4" _builder_version="3.25" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat"][et_pb_column type="1_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_image src="https://www.digitalgrog.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/bluehost-60-percent-off-2.95-deal-smaller-2.69-kb.jpg" url="http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-7776523-12671841-1471640098000" url_new_window="on" align_tablet="center" align_phone="" align_last_edited="on|desktop" _builder_version="3.23"][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="3_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_text admin_label="recommend bluehost text" _builder_version="4.4.7"]

I am happy to bring you this special deal right now (56% off) from Bluehost for starting a self-hosted wordpress blog/website. Using this special discount offer, you can install and set up a wordpress blog in minutes for just $3.95 a month and you get a FREE domain name.

#	~~56%~~ 60% Percent off Bluehost Hosting Special deal for 2018

Deal link updated – It is not often that you get such a good hosting offer from Bluehost at 56% off – Just $2.95 USD ( $4.39 AUD) for their special hosting deal – Grab it here via my link (56% off -$2.95)

Let me tell you a little about bluehost from my experience with them . When i started my first blog, I didnt know much about hosting and servers and that kind of geeky stuff. But I soon had to learn – at that time many years ago there was not as many reviews and write ups available on-line to read – before making that choice of picking a hosting company .

I just ended up signing up with a local hosting company. They had wordpress software availability … but they had their own custom installer software for it. Getting your blog started with thier software was a bit of a process (actually a pain). Once I managed to get teh installing bits all sorted out – There was other problems, WP plugins needed special permission just to work properly and I had to contact the server admin to change settings which took time going back and forth. It was quite frustrating.

I am glad that the top hosts like Bluehost and Hostgator nowadays have the one-click install that makes installing and starting a blog yourself a breeze and It can be done in minutes. I have given below a quick run through on how to set up your blog with Bluehost.

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#	You Ready?

Ok, so You’re set to give this a go!

You’ve chosen your tech blog site name and already purchased one ( if you havent – dont worry you can choose your free domain name in the bluehost sign up process below)

You have got a few articles/posts planned or already written, and you now possess a few gadgets that you want to review or got some new trending and exciting technology stuff that you want to write about.

Fantastic! Let’s design your desired blog.

#	Step 1: Get Hosted.

Don’t be anxious or scared — If the web hosting mumbo jumbo seems scary to you- Don’t panic , It isn’t as hard as you would believe it to be ! It’s simply hiring a small piece of the web network for your site.

So arises the very important Question, which host should you select?

The answer is one that is reliable, easy to use , easy to set up your blog and got good support.

From my personal experience, I suggest Bluehost for nearly everyone including fresh and new bloggers. I use Bluehost for the majority of my websites since it offers quality web hosting for a low price ($4.39 AUD per month for 1 year) and I can contact them if anything fails at all , whihc hasn’t happened so far. They give you your web domain name for free and they have a very good 1 click install for easy and quick set up of your blog!

Start by clicking the big Get Started Right now button or pic :

Next – You will see this pricing screen based on your country currency.

The starter plan should be good enough for a new blog or even a 5000 viewers a day blog.

Click on select.

Your next screen will be this – you can choose your free domain name over here and they will tell you if that name is available when you type it in.

For your own hosting account choice, you could choose simple hosting offers for 12 months , twenty-four, or 36 months. I recommend if you are in two minds, you can decide to go with the 12-month plan for $6.95 or then go for a longer 24/36 month and lock in a cheaper rate (as low as $3.49 a month currently- Links updated)

when I purchased my first bluehost hosting, I took a 36 month plan to save money over the longer run as I couldn’t see yourself creating more work for me changing hosts over the shorter term after just starting a blog and starting to get it off the ground.

I would suggest the 36 months plan as you still get the Free domain and the cheaper hosting price is locked in for 3 years. Often if you take a 12 month plan you could see yourself ending up paying more when you need to renew (inflation + price increases) the plan after twelve months and trust me, time flies fast.

Check out he screen below

For the optional accessories on the list, Thats what it is optional

You don’t need Search-engine Jumpstart or Site Lock Domain name Safety unless you decide too, as they are optional as per your needs. You can invest in the Site Backup Professional in case you really are worried about security of your blog, however, I choose to perform the backing up myself and there are tutorials on-line that will show you how to do it. (I utilize the $80 plugins Backup-Pal).

On some of my blogs I use the manual export function to backup my blog posts + pages, this can be done within a few clicks and is the quickest way to back up your written content from blog.

Domain Security Protection, nevertheless, is something that you ought to spring the additional $9.99 for. Anybody can check out who owns any particular web site; when you don’t pay for Domain Security Coverage, anybody can find out your name and also mailing home address on your site. The domain security blocks this.

Now It’s time to start your WordPress up and get it up and running.

#	Step 2: Install WordPress

Once you login with your new login and password into the bluehost website. You will see this image below, you just need to click install and follow instructions to get the blog up and running in a few minutes.They also offer a paid installing service ,but its so easy why would you not do it yourself.

WordPress is regarded as the world’s largest website and blog publishing system. It’s immense, it’s simple, it’s utilised by multi million-dollar publishing company such as CNN and People journal, and nearly every blogger I know utilises it, which means there are lots of specialists available to help you if something goes wrong.

Bluehost offers easy one-click WordPress set up, which saves you from struggling to set it up or employing somebody to get it done.

On the cPanel, BlueHost’s own home display, you’ll notice this button:

Click through it and it will take you via a simple installation process.

While in this process, it will ask you where you’d want to set up it, choose your domain (eg. http://www.mynewtechblog.com). It will provide you with your login name and password via this process.

Once your wordpress blog is set up, you come to know where to login (generally the www.mynewtechblog.com/wp-admin) and it is also emailed to you. You would have already written down your password . This login and password can be used to login to your blog and start the process of blogging.

From this provided link, you’ll manage to sign in your own WordPress dashboard write articles and further optimise your blog as you wish.

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#	Step 3: Set up Plugins

Think of WordPress like a blank canvas — plugins are accessories that make your tech blog functional. The majority of plugins are free but some of them ask for donations to support them.

A few premium plugins cost money. After you log in from the admin panel in wordpress, in the right part bar, click where it states “plugins” and choose “add new” to explore and install useful plugins with the help of keywords search.

Here are some useful plugins that I recommend for new tech bloggers (All free!) :

Google xml sitemaps- This is necessary to get you in the search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo

Contact Form 7 — can make a simple contact form page for your blog or website so people can email you through your site.

SEO plugin – ALL in one SEO or WordPress seo by yoast ,they both are good choose one. A bit technical but necessary to make it popular on the internet. Plenty of guides to sue these plugins available online

Akismet — Keeps spam under control (NECESSARY, As you will get LOTS of spam )

Share This – Adds links at the bottom of posts to share via Email, StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, Twitter.

Comment Reply Notification — Somebody comments on your article , this one is your personal assistant and will reply to them for you

Sucuri Security – This plugin help protect your blog from hackers and keeps a log of who is logging into your blog besides you

Wp Smush it – This helps in reducing the size of images you post in articles on your blog to help make your blog faster to load

WP supercache – This helps you r blog load faster to viewers and therefore helps get better ranking in search

FD Feedburner Plugin — Manages your feed, your stream of new content.

WordPress Related posts – Quickly increase your readers’ engagement with your posts by adding Related Posts in the footer of your content. Click on Related Posts tab to configure your settings.

Pretty Link — if you want to put in a n affiliate link that looks too long , you can mask the url or then shorten that url with this

Ultimate Google Analytics — Installs Google Analytics easily onto your website. You will need to track what keywords people are searching to reach your blog and what pages they are visiting on your blog.

Monarch plugin – Want to share your articles easily from your blog to Facebook, twitter etc . This one adds nice share buttons and is fully customis’able .Its free – once you get a $69 elegant wordpress theme membership that gets you $80 plus professional themes so technically it’s not free . Though I would say it’s worth it by just getting the plugin you also get free 80 themes (you also get access to 3 other plugins Free with this membership)

Be mindful of not getting too excited and adding too many plugins just because its freely available, as too many wordpress plugins can also slow down your website.

#	Step 4: Secure Your Social Media Handles

Grab your preferred screen name on the social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter,Instagram, Pinterest and especially Google+ . You should look to maintain your first name / username identical across almost all domain names to bring more brand awareness for your website. With Google+, which uses your complete name you will not be able to do this. Keep in mind that Facebook or my space will never allow you to create a custom link until you have 25 followers.

#	Step 5: Begin An Email List

Do you really need an email list?

Ask any experienced specific marketer or web guru and they will tell you — an email list is the sole most beneficial factor that your site will and should surely have. People are more prone and able to see your own content by means of email than they are by any other social network, and also even though social accounts can vary in popularity over time, the email address is right here to stay.

My first large blog earnings were less due to not starting an email list initially. When I finally dis start a mail list, I made my second big mistake — starting it on MailChimp, a free supplier. While they are good to start with, I did not realise the big features and options a premium service provider could give and how I was missing out on automation and money by trying to save money by going with a free provider. With Free provider, I lost an enormous part of my email list in the process because you can’t just include all your names on a listing just by adding it to their new list — but they have to verify and get approval from that list of users all over again.

Today I choose to use Aweber, the perfect email service available, and also I’m kicking myself personally because I wasn’t going for it from the start.

#	Step 6: Make Your Tech Blog Successful

If you are interested in starting off a tech blog that will help you make money and be a success, you have come to the greatest resource here: Blogging to Success with Clickbank. (Course Website: http://clickbank-course.com/ ) I was not willing to enrol and spend money on learning how to blog + make money (something which I was actually was already doing).

I actually didn’t think I required it, because I was already making a bit of extra cash, but when I read how many more top bloggers were members and gained from it and were successful, it lured me in to join up. Eventually, I thought why not give it a go – and I became a member.

I was surprised how beneficial and useful the content they provided and the detailed and informative video tutorials they provided via the course. I learn a lot even though I thought I knew quite a bit. They had put together access to all the lessons, all the webinars and interviews, and even better, actual helpful bloggers speaking about how they have actually grown their blogs to success and created online businesses to million dollar enterprises. They speak about how they built their blogs and started earning money.

In short, this is the resource that will help you build the best blog you may and guide you on monetising it with internet marketing — and get paid for it.

Mom bloggers, Travel Bloggers, Fashion bloggers Gadget Blog

It doesn’t matter if you are starting a blog on fashion, travel, a mom blog, a gadget website, a baby blog – this six-step tutorial should get you going with building a blog. Once you create your website/blog all you need is relevant graphics to be updated to your niche to give it a proper look for your topic. Updating to a relevant logo and your niche content articles will make your this niche blog stand out.

While we recommend Bluehost, we do believe you should always check out other website hosting providers too before deciding for yourself, so here is another comparison list of other website hosts for 2018.

Next What? Keep Calm and Blog regularly

used to advice new and even experienced bloggers to write new articles or posts at least 2 times a month . But this all changed and with increased competition and google updates now it is better to blog at least 2 to 4 times a week when you start a blog. In your early days, blogging prolifically and more regularly is the best thing you can do — because you’ll develop your own voice, you’ll see what your readers like, and you will also understand of what you should be writing about by getting feedback and comments to shape your blog much better to success.

Is my blog a success yet – It’s not an easy task and can take a long time and a lot of work and writing before you gain a loyal and regular audience or traffic interested in what you have to say on a regular basis. But once you see this happening, the perks in this field are rewarding and maybe it also will surpass your expectations.

Good luck, you tech savvy blogger, you!

[Disclosure: Digitalgrog.com.au is a affiliate partner to most of the Hosting services and some other blog related promotion services that I have listed here on my blog and I use, which means that in addition to using their service, we also receive a commission for referring new customers. To be fair, though, we still use these services even if we weren’t an affiliate. We don’t recommend any particular host just because we’re an affiliate (every hosting company offers a similar affiliate program); we recommend certain Hosting companies because they are the best, most reliable option. Plus, because we’re a partner, these providers offers a special price for Digitalgrog readers.

Ergo, we don’t recommend Bluehost or any featured host just because we’re an affiliate (every hosting company offers a similar affiliate program and you could pick any of them ), but we recommend Bluehost because they are the best, most reliable option. Plus, because we’re a partner, Bluehost offers a special price for digitalgrog.com.au readers: only $3.95 a month and you already have our godaddy $1 special above

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The Ultimate Guide for Blog SEO in 2020

June 1, 2020 by admin 5 Comments

Ranking no # 1 in google search is the ultimate dream for many website owners and SEO agencies. Getting among the top 10 ranking in search engines can be very satisfying and lucrative for many webmasters. Ranking right at the top in Google search will always remain a mystery to most people trying to crack open that secret ranking formula. Google has carefully hidden their ranking secrets behind their thousands of patents and algorithms and AI machine learning.

The webmasters and gurus will manage to crack some rank clues, but not all the factors combined together. That “secret sauce” that helps you rank to no#1 will always be a highly guarded secret by Google and co.

Yet, there are enough clues available to get your website ranking to the top for your chosen keywords be it WordPress CMS or a Wix website. If you follow some of these “Ranking tips” revealed below by me in this blog post, you will definitely get closer to ranking at the coveted top position.

If you just want to rank quickly then you can skip this tutorial and just copy what top rankers are doing to reach no #1 in google with help from seo tools.

It is not hard to see what they are doing based on onpage and offpage SEO on their sites and even analyse their backlink structure. Some tools that may help you find out what top bloogers or competitors are doing are software like Ahrefs ( paid membership) , Semrush (paid monthly membership) and SEO PowerSuite that is standalone Desktop software(NO monthly membership – one off payment)

Yes I have listed on my blog profile about me writing about SEO and technology, but I really never written in detail about SEO, in spite of ranking for some big keywords. So I hope this post does some justice to my laziness in SEO content publishing – and you benefit from this article.

Yes, you can definitely rank for some keywords and get more traffic and earn some money as well if you are selling some products from your website/blog. Getting top ranking in google-search has made many a webmaster successful in the online world and let them quit their full-time jobs.

Black hatters today as well manage to “rank no #1 on google” with shady and blackhat tactics, however, It is no secret that content length of your article, content quality of your article and authority links ( good backlinks) pointing to it will always boost your website ranking. I break it down to you below:

The Ultimate SEO Guide for websites – Rank in 2020

The basics of ranking however, will always be these 4 main factors as given below:

1. Content-Length (Should be minimum 1200 + Words)

2. Content quality (should be well written, good grammar, no spelling mistakes, structured right and useful to the reader)

3. Backlinks ( should come from good websites with high authority and be relevant to your niche)

4. UI & UX or Post/Article structure and design layout (your theme/template)

These four above factors will help you rank and is essentially the backbone for ranking in 2020, however, there are many more factors that add to this and which will help you shoot up your article popularity and rankings and they are given below. Continued…

But before that here is the “Freshest SEO TIPS section”

SEO SIGNALS that matter right now- Google May update

Backlinks to inner pages has gained more relevancy in addition to homepage with google may update. Keep a good balanced ratio.

Font size is important – It should be easily readable on smart devices.

Youtube video or video backlinks gives your site ranking boosts

Social media votes make a difference. Facebook and pinterest sharing counts

Optimum spacing between your content/paragraphs or within your articles

I will be updating this post on a regular basis to keep up with the latest SEO trends and updates happening so that you can also update your SEO game accordingly to keep your top ranking on the top. And so I would like to call this post “The Ultimate Guide to SEO”. Anyway Moving on..

To make it easier to read and digest this mega post, I will arrange my tips neatly into tips that you can take action with, or informational tips which you can digest and then decide to take some action with them or then label the tips as black Grey white Hat.

· (Action) = Tip that you can start implementing today on your blog/website

· (Info) = Tips that informs you about SEO as it is today or in 2020 and you can decide how you want to act on this information

· (BL/GR Tip) = Tips that borders on black hat grey hat methods and you should use at your own risk

I will put these items in brackets after every tip so that you can know what kind of tip it is and take action accordingly. SEO changes very rapidly and it is essential to stay on top of things – SO I will be updating these tips on a regular basis and the most recent tips will always be on the top (* that’s the reason why I have not numbered the tips)

Below i have also included some Bonus SEO FREE PDF’s that will further help you optimise your website to rank well with latest ranking factors

Let me explain the first 4 most important SEO tips I have given above

Content-Length (Action) – The label on this topic is (Action) and so it will benefit you if you immediately put this tip into action. Start making posts at least 1200 + words (2000 to 5,000 words also rank well today). Most blog posts and articles have a better chance of ranking no#1 to 10 if they are at least 1200 words at the minimum and have the other ranking factors listed above supporting it.

2020 Google May 4th update suggests that 700 word content does not cut it anymore in a lot of niches.

If you got blog posts or articles that are ranking well and are short of this figure, consider increasing the word count of your post after doing a quick review of a top ranking article in search engines -in your niche.

Content Quality (Action) – This is a no-brainer, if you have bad spelling and grammar you are already losing a lot of traffic due to looking unprofessional and giving the impression that your website is of low standard. Google search and Bing search have also become smarter and can detect low-quality articles. Make sure you check your article for grammatical mistakes and spelling mistakes after you write it.

A good structure or flow in the article also means that the flow of the article should be smooth, giving an overview, pros and cons, in-depth review and summary in the proper structure as per the needs of each article and subject.

This structure and flow can differ depending on the topic you are writing about. When you a read the article, it should read seamless and flow well as per the keywords or topic it is supposed to be ranking for. It should also cater to the user intent of the viewer.

Backlinks (Action) – This is one of the most important factor that all search engines count on to rank their top pages or websites, including Google. How does a successful website rank to the top?

It gets more and more links over a period of time as it churns out content and then more awesome content and gain more backlinks. If backlinks are dropping then your popularity is going to dip and Google thinks the same.

Make sure that you consistently have an awesome blog/website which is gaining links on a regular basis and at a steady pace.

[A healthy looking referring domain backlink profile]

Google is really a popularity engine (ref roger monti). The pages that satisfy the most users are what Google will rank at the top. That’s called matching web pages to user intent. User intent means what the person typing the search query means when they type any particular query and what they expect to see.

DOES BACKLINKS MATTER ?

As of today, Google is still giving importance to backlinks with these three criteria in order

· AUTHORITATIVE BACKLINKS

· BACKLINKS THAT GIVE YOUR BLOG TRAFFIC

· BACKLINKS WITH HIGH DOMAIN AND PAGE AUTHORITY AND TRUST

. RELEVANT BACKLINKS – Content on the page that is linking to you which means relevancy of the content on the page matters today.

Many webmasters use a (BL/GR Tip) version to back linking to reach the top of the ranking in search quickly in some easy niches. Many a time these do not last for very long and very rarely these rankings stick.

Blog Post/Article UX, Design or Structure (Action + Info) – This factor has become more important in several niches mid-2018 and into 2020. If you have a well-designed blog page or article with the proper structure on it then it will rank well.

Good sized visible fonts for viewers, structure,responsive and design to make the article look good on computers as well as tablets and Phones, well laid out content on page with relevant images and graphs and dot points and tables – they all contribute to a well-designed blog post or article and help your blog post rank better.

I suggest if you want to make your job easier for ranking on search engines, then go with a good wordpress theme provider that is responsive, html5 ready, has robust inbuilt SEO basics and speedy theme loading. I would recommend Genesis studiopress wordpress themes for this, you can read my review over here.

Does organic traffic help my blog rank?(info)

This is a trend that could change, but right now direct traffic definitely helps your rankings jump up and down when combined with constant organic traffic and already good rankings.

Yes, organic traffic does help rank better, but it does this – with other supporting factors like low bounce rate and direct traffic gained and supported by some social media traffic.

Below are some more factors that will help you rank apart from what I already mentioned above. These should also be implemented on your website and blog.

Placement of keyword

If you are looking to optimize for a “keyword”, you need to put it in the first 50 to 100 words of the article. If it’s a key phrase (two to three words) then break up the keywords and use it in the first 100 words on the page.

But I would say do research before adjusting this, as some niches rank without keyword placement as well, but it is safe to just do this at the start and then re-optimize later if you not getting the results you need.

I suggest also comparing the top 10 competitors ranking for that keyword and re-optimizing your keyword density and placement. You can check my copy at seo post(https://www.digitalgrog.com.au/make-money-blogging/why-seo-copycat-can-save-you-time/ ) that talks about this in much more detail.

Snippets or featured results

This is big right now (Featured snippets) – You know those results that show up right on top of Google search when you search for some keywords.

Featured snippets, also known as the quick answer or knowledge graph is an area at the top of page 1 in Google search where the searcher’s query is answered right then and there (like above pic). You can get more on how to rank with this in diggitys post referenced below.

Summarize with lists and link to sections in your blog post

If you are making an article like a step by step guide – Summarise the steps at the beginning of the article in point form and then link back from every point in the list to the description of the steps below.

Creating lists also help with featured snippets being taken from your article to be displayed on search if your article starts to rank in top 20.

Use synonyms/ LSI in your articles(info – BL/GR)

[You can easily use Microsoft word to research for synonyms by highlighting/right-clicking the word in the document and clicking synonyms to give you additional keywords]

Google’s algorithm is smart and getting smarter, but we do know for sure from many tests done by SEO’s that the search engine does detect synonyms for your keyword in your article to find out what the article is about which is also a relevance factor in ranking the article.

You need to help Google find what your article is about so synonyms help the search engine know what your article is about. Use them.

Freshness factor in ranking

Freshness is a new factor in the new search algorithm. Every time you update your website you get an instant brownie point from the search engine and your recent content gets a new life and attention. I’ve seen leads and traffic increase when I publish a new post.

Creating authority with authority (External linking)

Linking to established resources websites like Wikipedia and websites with good authority in the niche you are writing about/publishing on your blog will give your article some extra boost to your content. You could also mention Like a CEO or founder of a company you are writing about and link to their profile to gain some extra boost to your article. It’s like referencing authority (eg.in journals) and gaining some authority in exchange for your article.

Image Seo

I’ve tested a lot of image seo to see what works and surrounding your images with keywords and synonyms of the keywords you are focussing on will make it more prominent in the search engines.

Sometimes a top-ranked image in image search can pull a lot of traffic to your blog. And traffic helps your blog rank too. You could also align proper Keywords in your image name and post it right on the top of your page making it relevant to your blog post.

Monitor and Diversify links(BL/GR)

Often when you have good ranking articles and blog posts, you cannot control your backlinks as you automatically get links to your good articles. It is best to monitor what links you get as if you get too many links with a particular keyword, you could get penalized.

Very important – Diversify links to all pages in blogs – possibly backlink to main page 50 to 55% rest to other pages, Domains linking to main page 70% and to other pages 30 %. I’ve checked this with a $45 affiliate commission website I have been running successfully.

Backlinks Boost

You have written an awesome article that ticks all the boxes, but it’s no use if nobody sees it. You have to promote it via doing outreach and getting guest posts and backlinks or other means. Social media promotion would also help get a boost to your new article.

Whenever you post a new post, start trying to gain back links to it for at least a month to give that initial boost. Once it’s got some solid boost/substance behind it with shares, backlinks etc the article will continue to grow and rank.

Content and Article length

How much is too much with article length. Well some lucky chaps getaway with ranking 500-word contents in the top 10, but they are only lucky and not forever.

The new article post length is 2000 + words blog post if you want a decent chance to compete against top rankers with huge authority.

But saying that, I have got a lot of traction and leads from many 1200 word posts that I have written as well. So it’s not only the length of the article but a mix of everything backlinks, shares etc mixed with a length that makes it rank well.

https or secure sites

Well, Google is the king of search, so they can announce whatever they want to and they have said that they will show all websites that are not secure (without https) as not secure in Google Chrome browser. So obviously you get brownie points for having https in your domain name and it helps to rank as well, so they say.

AMP for ranking and SEO

The full form of AMP in Seo terms is “Accelerated Mobile Pages”, In simple terms when you implement amp on your website, your pages will render faster to your viewer and this benefits viewers on mobiles, tablets which is a growing audience. Google says 40% of users will abandon any website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Mobile pages often take at least 8 seconds to load.

How to implement AMP – If you got your website hosted with WordPress, it’s as simple as getting a WP plugin supporting amp. This is also a factor that is taken into account for ranking in the search engines. We just don’t know how much weight it carries.

Viral bait + Social Media sharing

While this topic sounds more like an alternative SEO method, it still can have a big impact on traffic and also impact seo.

These two are big for one main reason “traffic”. These both when implemented nicely could give a steady and regular traffic to your blog on facebook, twitter, Pinterest and Instagram and other social media platforms.

Relevant traffic to and from your niche helps you rank better as it also improves engagement and lowers bounce rate. But you need to be careful when using viral bait, so as not to affect your bounce rate in a bad way.

Technical factors for Search Engine Optimisation

Broken links:

Broken links on your blog internally or externally are not good for SEO and need to be fixed or redirected.

Slow plugins:

If you’re using wordpress and use a lot of plugins, do check all your plugins to see if they are slowing down your blog or then affecting your SEO in a bad way.

Page speed:

The loading speed of your website and its pages if slow can be bad SEO. Make sure you have a good speedy hosting company serving your website. Make use of CDNS and cache plugins if necessary. Do not use large images.

Responsiveness:

A website design or theme should be able to be seen seamlessly on all modern devices. A responsive design will improve search engine ranking. Your wordpress theme or website design should be responsive

Important Sub factors that improve your website visibility on search engines

Internal and inbound links:

There should be topic relevance between the page linking and the page linked with internal links
It’s good to have IPs from different IP classes (preferably us but some AU UK Etc.) linking to you
Language match between linked page and linking page
Context relevance of the text around your backlink pointing to your website will enhance your topic. Try to get niche relevant links
Link to your website with full URL as anchor text (diversify this)
Interlinking from your author bio to good posts on your blog

External Backlinks (to do – Action):

Do not have too many links on the homepage. Try to keep it a minimum
Avoid links to external spammy sites, link to only authority and niche relevant sites if possible.
Get affiliate links to open in new window and pass no link juice.
Use Majestic SEO, Ahrefs and …smallseotools.com

GrapeVINE: + affiliate website SEO

Here I will add and update information that I source from online SEO groups and general chatter on SEO online. I am connected to many good SEO consultants and so will add here what makes sense with the latest SEO trends and is buzzing in the SEO grapevine. This will also seo suggestions that you can apply to affiliate comission websites/blogs ( amazon websites) to rank and bank.

The grapevine content that I agree with, will also feature above on the – “Freshest SEO TIPS section” on the top of this article.

Currently on the GRAPEVINE:

Build naked and branded links to rank

Building anchors from and to internal pages and blog posts works for ranking

2000 + words for affiliate sites has better chances of ranking.

Page speed is important for affiliate sites (optimise images and load times)

Relevancy of content linking back to you page niche matters more and helps ranking.

(NEW)Build a table of content for blog, works for some affiliate websites too ( pic below)

Its best to place the table of contents at the top anywhere between 1 to 3 rd paragraphs

Position wise using a table of contents, might impact your new content in a positive way and bloggers have reported that it give your post a bit of a boost.

Past couple weeks its been noticed – Internal linking seems to have been given a bit of boost in recent updates. 01/06/2020

Some Online Resources for updated SEO News

Some Interesting posts by people I follow on SEO

OLD SEO METHODS THAT YOU Should Not DO ANYMORE

Anchor ratio breakdown: (do not do this – anchor ratios change according to keyword and niche)

Naked URL’s (domain.com) – 15%
Branded Anchors (brand name) – 75%
Generic Anchors (any generic word) – 5%
Partial Match/LSI Anchors (different variations of my main keywords – KeywordShitter is a great tool for this) – 3%
Exact Anchors (main money keywords) – approx 2%

New tools for SEO – Keyword everywhere, LSI , SerpLab, SEO Hero

WordPress plugins for SEO – Auto Optimise, AAWP ( for amazon comission websites), WP word count

SEO research websites – Reddit, Quora, Answer the public

WordPress themes for SEO – Genesis -Studiopress, Astra theme, Generate press

More Advanced COPYKAT tips

FINDING COMPETITORS’ BACKLINK SOURCES Rapido:

Here’s a small tip which you can use to get the same links your competition have. Credit to Ahrefs. For this, you’ll need an Ahrefs account. If you don’t want to pay for one, you sometimes can get it for $5 (1-month use) on Fiverr.

Now as we all probably know already – the “traditional” way of finding the links your competition is using is by doing a manual reverse engineering campaign.

With this technique, everything/majority of the process takes place inside Ahrefs. Once you’re logged in, you can use the “Link Intersect Tool” directly to find out all your competitors’ links. For example:

Once you have all your backlink data, either yourself (or your VA) now need to note down the “type” of anchor each one is. For example exact/partial-LSI/naked URL/generic/brand/other/etc.. you get the idea. And then calculate the % that type of anchor accounts for each site you’ve gathered data on.

Again, this strategy isn’t necessarily “quick” but this is often the first job I give my VA when once I’ve created my churn/burn sites.

You’ll then see something like this:

You can dig deeper and try to find their PBN links. Just because it’s blocked by Ahrefs/Majestic, doesn’t mean it’s blocked by every single crawler/bot. A method I use involves using newer/fresh backlink checker sites such as this. These are probably not going to be blocked by some PBN sites.

One other software that is just a one off price (not ongoing subscription) and does give you good data like above is Link Assistant Software

If you click on the “arrow” icon underneath each site, you’ll be given more information on the site, backlinks, anchor text used, etc.

These ranking signals and seo tips given above is mainly taking into account wordpress websites, but will surely also help many other platforms like Wix, Weebly , Squarespace & Blogpsot as well as they apply to all websites.

Mini Guide Tutorial – for Hypertext links or Html to refer to text or section within page

You dont really need an extra wordpress plugin to create a table of contents for your blog or website. You can create it with html code, all you need is to know how to link to text or sections within your page. Below is the html code you will use.

Text that has an anchor associated with it must be marked in the following way:

eg.1

example from my blog (visit my eg. post here)

Mark the area where you want the table of content link to go – with this example code below

<span id=”australianwebsitename”></span>

Use your own unique word instead of “australianwebsitename”. Place that just above the area you want the table of content link to point to

Your Table of content area text links – should be linked like this

<a href=”#australianwebsitename”> Your table of content anchor text</a>

Linking example on this page

eg.2
<a href="anchor type text">: This must be typed at the beginning of the link text. Note: there is a space after the a. The "anchor type text" takes different forms depending upon whether the link’s reference is within the current document or referencing another document on the same system
</a>: Is typed after the link text.

To reference an anchor point/section/text within the same document the link description takes the following form:

<a href="#ref1">This is a reference to the section/text/bottom of this document/page </a>

Eg.3
With Html5 :

If you want  to mark a top of the page content - code below 
<h2 id="top">Top of page!</h2>

Link code - to go to top of the page(which would be placed at bottom of page)
<a href="#top">Go to top</a>

While the title says so “20 tips” I haven’t really numbered them, but they are more than 20tips.

To summarize all the tips i have given above, always monitor the top results in Google search for the keywords or topic your targeting and observe and analyse the top results for design , structure, backlinks content quality , content length and other factors mentioned above and you should then this should give you an idea how to start you ranking strategy for 2020.

If you think I have missed out on something, then do let me know about it in the comments, would appreciate your input.

Update Log:

I published this BLOG SEO GUIDE on 31 March 2018, below is the update log

Updated: 01/09/2018 – Table of contents image added to grapevine

Updated :15/10/2018 – Tutorial for linking to text or section in your webpage ( for creating table of contents without a WP plugin )

Updated : 01/06/2020 – Google May update additions

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