So you’re considering setting up your own blog, huh? That is a quite smart thought aside from it’s definitely not. All things considered, not until you’re truly certain about what you’re doing.
Blogging isn’t as straightforward as the vast majority think. It’s not just about how to start a blog. There’s something else entirely to it than what a great many people think, however, we’ll speak more about that in the coming days.
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How to Start a Blog in 2021: Pre-Requisites
The thing is blogging can either make you effective or an aggregate disappointment. Simply think of. How will feel when after you’ve applied every one of your endeavors you find that it’s sufficiently not. It’s baffling.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t attempt. Truly, I need you to, yet I generally need you to be readied. With that here is a portion of the inquiries you have to answer first before choosing to begin a blog.
1. Find What to write about
You see blogging isn’t tied in with keeping an online journal (albeit a few people act as is it). Blogging implies being a specialist. That being stated, you can’t be a specialist in anything. It must be tied in with something.
It can’t be about irregularity either. It must be engaged. The primary thing you have to do before beginning a blog is to know your specialty. Try not to make excessively of an arrangement out of it. Your specialty doesn’t need to be anything fabulous.
Simply pick a specialty that you’re great at. That way, you’ll have no issue shelling your blog with content, in light of the fact that as we as a whole know, a blog needs to have heaps of substance in the event that you need guests to continue pouring.
2. Set Your Objectives?
You can’t simply begin a blog since you need to. There must be a purpose for it. Else you’ll simply be squandering your time. Maybe you’re a specialist who needs more customers. Maybe you need to provide. Your future businesses with an online portfolio. The rundown goes on. My point? There must be a reason you went so far as to peruse this blog for tips on blogging.
3. Find Your Audience
If you are planning to start a blog, then you must identify the people you are targeting. Every successful blogger has an audience in mind and it is for these people that they create their content. Audience and niche are two intertwined factors in blogging. It is advisable to narrow down to a specific niche once you have identified your audience.
A closer look at the above successful blogs shows they have a specific type of audience. For instance, Perez Hilton is all about celebrities but not just anything; you will find gossip, photos, and videos, which you would not find in any mainstream publication.
Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. has built a niche for the blog and reads who are looking for everything salacious about their favorite celebrities know where to find such news. Likewise, blogger-cum-celebrity Arianna Huffington has created a highly successful news platform out of The Huffington Post.
Today, internet users know where to find the latest news with a touch of professionalism. On this blog, you will find everything from American politics to the latest gossip on French politicians. The blog like many others makes money through paid ads.
To successfully build a profitable blog, you need to carry out a lot of research. The information you have about a particular type of audience is not enough.
You need to learn more about what they love, their purchasing power, and much more. There are many tools to help in audience research and you can now deploy these to ensure your blog sets off on the right footing.
The lesson from these and many other successful blogs is the importance of first identifying your audience, crafting your content to suit a particular niche, and then going ahead to consistently provide content that suits your niche.
4. Structure Your Blog
Millions of websites and blogs are launching daily but Google says less than 52% are making any money. To avoid the same predicament, you need to build a unique blog, which is not only aesthetically appealing but also easy to navigate.
Internet users have an infamously short attention span and to retain them on your blog, you need to do more than provide good content. Your blog design not only enhances navigation but also ultimately impacts the user experience. To retain visitors to your blog, create a good site structure.
A site link makes it easier for users to navigate by pointing them to the relevant content they are after. Sitelinks also boost your blog’s SEO performance, increase click-through rate and also conversion rates. To get a site link through Google’s algorithm, you must have a good blog structure. A good blog structure also determines SEO performance.
If you have ever tried browsing through a blog but abandoned the page altogether, you understand how frustrating poor design can be. You have to endeavor to build an SEO-friendly site structure. Such a blog design reduces page bounce rates because browsers can find what they are looking for.
Better still, search engine crawlers also find it easy to find content and index your blog. This, in turn, boosts your ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). Among the blog structure techniques that you can utilize include using a shallow depth navigation structure, utilizing HTML and CSS when creating site navigation, and planning your blog’s hierarchical organization of information right from the start.
You should also create a URL structure that follows the hierarchy you have already set out. More importantly, you need to leverage comprehensive internal linkages to make navigation of your blog easier and also boost your blog’s SEO ranking.
5. Create High Quality and Fresh Content
People come to your blog because of the promise of great content. Internet users are always in search of helpful information that will add value to their lives. Creating great content is not easy and it is no wonder this is one of the search ranking factors used by search engines.
While there is no exact definition for what makes content great, all of us know when we see it. For instance, this page from ModernCastle.com is a perfect example. The page covers Dyson vacuum cleaners at incredible depth, covering most Dyson models and types.
However, they take it a step further with real-world tests and data-driven content. Whatever you do, make sure your content is unique, authentic, and offers something that your readers won’t find elsewhere.
For instance, visual tutorial content is not only easy to follow but provides value to the viewer. The best blog content has a purpose and this should be your main consideration when getting started. You need to create content that is unique and relevant to your blog. A closer look at TechCrunch, for instance, reveals a high affinity for tech topics made simple for all types of readers.
This type of content easily boosts your lead generation campaign and makes it easier to make money through ads. If you want to create a blog around a keyword like “my homework help”, it is important to carry out intense research on the type of audience you are targeting, narrow down your niche, create great content for your audience and design a beautiful blog.
Key Steps to Start a Blog in 2020
Internet users love blogs and when they find relevant content which adds value to their lives on an easy-to-navigate blog, they will keep coming back. When this happens, you are on the path to making a profit through your blog.
1. Open a WordPress Account
WordPress is easily the best blogging platform on the internet. In fact, over 28% of internet blogs use it. It’s completely free to use, and there’s a tonne of resources and plugins you can use to make your blog your own personal space.
2. Set Up Your Blog
Once you’ve paid for your hosting and your WordPress account, it’s time to start working on setting up your blog. If you’ve decided to go with the hosting providers above, all you’ll have to do is ‘1-Click Install’, and the entire WordPress framework will be installed into your server space.
Now, you’ll be able to log into your WordPress dashboard by typing in your domain name and adding /wp-admin. Then, log in using your account details, and you’ll be in the backend of your website.
As you can see from the menu on the left-hand side, you’ll be able to customize all your personal preferences, your account settings as well as having the ability to add and edit pages and, most importantly, manage your blog posts.
3. Make Your Blog Your Own
Next, you’ll want to make sure that your blog stands out from the rest of the crowd. You can do this by uploading a theme. There are millions of themes available for you to choose from, each one as customizable as the last.
Simply search for whatever industry you’re blogging about. It could be fitness, fishing, computer games or whatever you want. You’re sure to find something you like by simply searching ‘your topic WordPress themes’ online.
There are free and paid options available, so it’s completely up to you and how much you want to invest into your blog. You can change your theme at any time so don’t worry if later down the line you feel like you want to update or rebrand your blog.
4. Set Up Your Pages
Now we can start really building up your blog. If you head over to your dashboard, using the menu on the left-hand side, click ‘Pages’. Here is your opportunity to create the main pages of your blog. You may want to have different categories and even a contact page.
For example, if you’re writing about computer games, you may like to have a dedicated page for each console. You have complete freedom to create as many or as few pages as you please.
5. Create Your Content
Yay! Your blog is all set up, and it’s ready to go. Now there’s only one main thing left to do; your blogs! This is what all the fuss is about and where you can really get creative. Head over to the ‘Blogs’ file on your dashboard and click ‘Add new’.
Now you can input the title of your blog and begin writing. You can write about whatever you want in any format. Obviously, there are some formats that work better than others, and there are ways to write your content, so it’s more engaging for your readers but for now, why not experiment to see what kind of writing you enjoy the most.
6. Perfect Your Content
The chances are that you won’t be able to write a perfect blog on the first draft. In fact, it’s highly recommended that you save your posts as a draft. Then, take a break from writing and return to it a few hours later. This will give you a fresh pair of eyes to look over your work so you can correct the errors.
When reading through your content, you’ll want to make sure that you’re communicating the message that you want to communicate. Also, try to avoid any hateful or potentially offensive statements in your blog.
Checking over the grammar and punctuation of your content is also vital. If you don’t, your blogs will be very poor-quality as well as being extremely difficult to read. This will drive readers away from your blog and will damage your credibility as a writer.
You may want to check all these aspects over several times before actually uploading your content. For the most up-to-date tips, tools, and resources on proofreading and grammar, check out Best Australian Writers.
How to Start a Profitable Blog in 2020: 4-Point Approach
1. Blog Creation:
This is the first step of blog management services. Professionals first visualize and define the outline for the blog creation. It helps them to select the theme and professional layout for the blog. They make sure that the layout is designed according to your business model.
SEO professionals prepare appropriate titles and descriptions for the blog. Then they create a relevant copy of blog content by keeping search engines in the mind. Finally, they embed main website links within the blogs in order to enhance inbound links and page rankings collectively.
2. Blog Integration
In the second phase, professionals integrate the blog with the most popular blogging platforms such as WordPress and Blogger, etc. During integration, several plug-ins and templates are used to offer better support for the blog.
The integration enables professionals to make a blog more vibrant, visible, and effective. Once the creation and integration phases are completed, SEO professionals start marketing and promotion of this blog. This is probably the third phase of the blog management services.
3. Blog Marketing / Blog Promotion:
These activities include accepting user’s comments, comment approval, and guest post requests, etc. professionals also perform promotion of internal pages via anchored keyword links as well. An extensive blog promotion strategy offers a number of advantages such as improved search engine visibility, increased visitor response, and easy customer feedback, etc.
4. Blog Maintenance
This phase enjoys huge significance and an integral part of the blog management service. Blog maintenance services include regular blog updates, frequent social media campaigns, daily archives of the previous blog posts and blog graphics modifications, etc.
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