Living in a world of blogging can be tough, challenging and overwhelming. This is especially true if you’re a beginner who doesn’t know where to start. In this article, we’ll cover the basics and give you some tips to guide you through your journey.
The original idea behind blogs was to serve as a medium for documenting and writing about personal life events.
Today, the scope of creating and sharing material online has grown over time and has become more sophisticated.
Table of Contents
Blogging 101
Reasons to start a blog
Source of Income
It can serve as a source of income, even if you don’t have a product to sell. This is where advertising and affiliate relationships play a major role, and they offer you great options for monetization.
To Drive Traffic to your business
Most companies and organizations start sites that are associated with their products so it can drive potential buyers to their website. Keeping your content updated and captivating would drive traffic to your e-commerce store without having to promote any particular product within your post.
To authenticate yourself as an authority
Having a site will help reinforce the recognition you seek as an expert. Regularly updated posts, which include opinion posts, will heighten the regard your readers have for you.
Make sure to engage with your readers in the comments section; guest posting and comparing notes with other creators will help you network effectively.
Selecting the best platform
The decision to start a site comes with a lot of choices to make. One of which is the best blogging platform to use. Ultimately, it’s your call to decide what best suits your skills and interests.
Here are the most popular platforms to help you make an informed decision on which platform to use:
Blogger
Owned and managed by Google, this one gives you access to Google tools such as Google AdSense, Google Analytics and many more. This platform, however, it is not as adaptable as WordPress.org.
If you want to build up a brand or are doing it as a hobby, Blogger is the best bet. It’s user-friendly and doesn’t require that you invest any money in it. This is a great platform for those just starting out.
Pros
- You can place Google AdSense ads
- Customizable and you have access to the HTML codes
- User-friendly and cost-free
Cons
- Your address would come with a “. BlogSpot” extension to it
- There is no availability of self-hosting, you are entirely Google-powered
- Lesser themes and storage capacity relative to WordPress
Wordpress.com
Your content is stored without any cost on their servers, but this means that you only have an incomplete version of the blogging software. It’s still a good choice if you don’t want to spend money on creating material and if you intend to upgrade to a self-hosted WordPress in the future, this is a good choice.
Pros of WordPress.com
- Zero setup costs
- Easy-to-use, you don’t need to have coding or web design knowledge
- There lots of themes to choose from
Cons of WordPress.com
- Has a lesser professional appearance
- Limited functionality except you pay for upgrades
- Your address comes with “. WordPress “extension with it.
- You have no control over, your website can be suspended anytime, and you have little control over advertising income
WordPress.org
A self-hosted WordPress site makes use of the WordPress software on a third-party server. This software offers you numerous options. You’re in control which means that you can edit your HTML code and it allows you to install plugins. All these give you a professional look.
If you are willing to invest some money every month, a self-hosted WordPress site would be a good pick. WordPress.org is perfect for professional brand builders, business owners, or creators seeking to increase their functionality.
Pros of WordPress.org
- Free access to 1500 free themes and 20,000 free plugins
- It has search engine friendly options and search engine optimization
- More user-friendly with better control and customization options
Cons of WordPress.org
- Susceptible to security threats, no thanks to its popularity
- You might need some technical knowledge to host on a third-party server
Tumblr
This easy to use and user-friendly platform is the ideal option for creators who fancy the idea of “reblogging.” It is good for microblogging. If you are looking to create long-form content, then you might not want to use this option.
Pros of Tumblr
- Over 90 themes to choose from
- Access to HTML and CSS for customization
- Limitless storage
Cons of Tumblr
- Limited plugin options
- Difficult to monetize
- Difficult to back up your content and import to other platforms
WIX
Using Wix is a good idea as it’s a great website with resources fantastic for businesses. Wix simplifies the process of building a whole e-commerce website, but you have limited control over your online store.
Pros of Wix
- Good ad integration
- User-friendly
- Different domain registrations options
- Limitless bandwidth
- Over a hundred professional looking templates to choose from
Cons of Wix
- Inadequate customization options
- It costs more than a self-hosted WordPress site
- Its e-commerce tools are not developed
Growing Your Site
Now that you know the basics, what next? How do you increase and grow your audience outside of your immediate family and friends? It starts with a strategy!
Growing your site by increasing traffic is actually simple, at least in theory. It begins by putting your audience first.
Here’s how to grow your audience:
Know your audience
Knowing who your readers are will majorly contribute to your site’ss growth. Reaching a larger audience starts with knowing who your audience is in the first place. Who would read your site and why?
What exactly draws them to it? Your writing style? Are you funny?
Figure those questions out while crafting your content to suit the needs and desires of your audience.
Develop a Good Writing Habit
This will be a challenge at first if you are not used to writing regularly. Sometimes, you might feel motivated to write, and it comes easily. On other days, you might struggle to write as little as 300 words.
The solution? Practice!
The more you produce content, the better you become at it and the more natural it gets. This is the best way to overcome any writer’s block you might have.
Guest Posting is key!
One of the all-time most successful tips of growing your traffic is guest posting. Do not hoard all your great posts to your site alone. Share some of your amazing posts on other sites, so you can reach out to a larger audience.
Start by creating a list of sites your kind of readers would be reading, then find out if they accept guest posts on their site. Some do, some don’t. If it’s not clearly stated in their own, you could politely ask via an email.
Do it like a pro
It is important that you hone your writing skills and make sure your site like a professional. How do you do it like a professional?
- Proofread every site to make sure your spelling and grammar is error-free
- Ensure your site links and navigation are working optimally
- An about page is necessary; it tells people who you are and what your site is about
- Ensure your site has a professional look
Beginner Mistakes
The truth is that no successful creator was ever perfect from the start. Every expert you see today made mistakes in the past. It takes months of mistakes before you begin to see the slightest glimpse of success.
A good number of creators make the following blogging mistakes, so it’s best you begin to correct them as soon as you can.
Here are a few of them:
Wrong Web Host
The web host you choose has an important role in the success story of your site. The choice of a wrong web host can lead to one or more of these: website downtime, poor customer support, inadequate features, and a slow website. All these issues can cause the ranking of a website on search engines to drop.
Wrong Niche
This is a general mistake many people make from the start of their sites. Most times, this is caused by not giving it thorough thought or planning.
The major problem of choosing the wrong niche is that after a while, you’ll realize you don’t enjoy writing content for this particular niche. The solution to this is to do thorough research before picking any niche or change to a better niche immediately.
Lack of knowledge about SEO
SEO is so important to the success of your site. This will determine if your posts will found on search engines such as Google.
The right SEO knowledge will aid you in finding the right keywords for your posts and help you make the best use of your traffic.
Keyword research, on-page and off-page SEO practices are important to get your site ranked high by Google.
Irregular and Inconsistent posting
Consistency and hard work are important in the making of a successful site. It’s unavoidable that you have to post regularly. Inconsistency in publishing fresh content is one of the major problems of many beginner bloggers.
There is no standard time between your previous post and next post. But you should have a regular posting pattern, so your audience can know when to expect your next post.
The most important thing is consistency whether it’s once a week, twice a week, or once a month. If you maintain a consistent pattern of posting, your readers are more likely to keep coming back to your site.
Spamming your site with ads
Ads partnerships such as Google AdSense are great to earn money from your site. However, when you spam your site with these ads, it has a negative effect.
Your income might increase, but you would definitely annoy some of your readers. No one likes it when ads interfere with what they are reading.
Not trying new things
This affects many beginner writers and could hinder your success without you realizing it. Most beginners are afraid of failure, and this could hold them back from trying new things or testing new grounds such as starting courses, producing YouTube videos or introducing podcasts.
Blogging Tips
Want to be successful? It’s good to learn a thing or two from those who have made it. Here are a few tips for beginners:
Do it for yourself first
When you start writing, the initial thing to do is to write for yourself. Focus on your thoughts and ideas, opinions and craft them into words.
It’s important you understand your audience
This would require lots of research from you in understanding your audience. It will give you a better idea of what to write about. An easier way to know what your readers want is by engaging with them on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn and other social media platforms. If the response is good, then that might be a good topic to write on.
Your posts should answer the questions of your readers
A good creator knows to source for ideas from the questions readers ask on social media. A good way to know this is through comments or tweets.
Develop your email list
A great path to successful blogging begins with an email list. Start developing your email list from day one. An email list helps you market your content to your audience directly without worrying about search engine ranking or any other online bottleneck.
Pay more attention to having a great call-to-action
If you want engagement on your blog and you want visitors to keep returning, finish each post with a CTA (call to action) to sign up for your email list or to follow you on social media. Watch how you increase your follower base significantly by this.
A call-to-action is quite important; people hardly notice your sidebars. Great content without a call-to-action is a no-no!
Consistency
Don’t underestimate the power of consistency. Many disregard it, and it’s a mistake. It takes lesser time to lose your follower base than it took to build it. Doing it consistently is key.
Be patient
Give it time and have a plan to write for a long time before you expect to see returns. Space right now is saturated. You will need to invest a great amount of time. If you are looking for short-term ROI or a fast path to fame then it just isn’t for you.
Hang in there, be consistent, improve yourself and with time you will build yourself a stable readership.
Conclusion
This in-depth guide has provided you with immense information to help you as a beginner. But if we are to give you just a single piece of advice, it would be consistency. Over the years, great sites have come and gone. There have also been moderate sites who consistently built their readership base over time and got better at their craft.
Blogging is definitely not a walk in the park. Make sure you enjoy your site because passion alone might not be able to keep you going. Be consistent!