If you’re the type of person who loves to chronicle his/her travels or share fabulous fashion finds among friends and with the rest of the world, you might be considering blogging by now. While it can be a great hobby, you would be glad to know that you actually can build a career out of it.
Even those who have aspirations of getting bigger clients, or running a more profitable business can start a blog and reap the benefits of blogging.
Seven Tips to Keep in Mind Before You Start a Blog
Blogging has become a surefire way to build a solid reputation in your chosen niche and exposing your name out there. Getting your feet wet in the blogosphere as a lucrative career option conjures up a slew of questions. Questions such as how to create a blog that your target audience would enjoy, and what name to give it in the first place.
So what else is there to keep in mind? Consider the following tips when before you start a blog.
1. Show that you have great writing skills by crafting great content.
While writing your first few posts may seem easy, writing interesting, original content may make your feel like you’re stuck in a rut. There is a myriad of tricks to get brilliant ideas by doing some simple research.
Spend extra time reading other blogs in your niche when you start blogging. Visiting forums, looking at trending topics, and checking what everyone is buzzing about, especially on social media, will also prove beneficial when trying to come up with content ideas.
[Tweet “Spend time reading other blogs in your niche when you start blogging. Research fuels creativity!”]
2. Always be ready to apply simple yet effective techniques.
One important thing to bear in mind is that the majority of your target audience would prefer content that is substantive, yet easy to digest and interesting. Theerefore, don’t try to write like an expert, unless you are one.
[Tweet “Use the language your audience uses when writing a blog. Make your content easy to understand.”]
When you use technical terms or big words to make yourself sound smart, expect to bore your readers to tears. Most of your readers just want to enjoy what they are reading, and not waste their time dissecting the point you are trying to put across.
3. Come up with a catchy blog name.
Deciding on which name to give to your blog is one of the fundamental steps to building a blogging career. Pick a blog name that is not only catchy, but also easy to spell and remember, and can somehow relate to you.
As with your content, you need to come up with a blog name that will stand out. In addition to the blog name, you blog titles are just as important. Create a bank of attention-grabbing titles that you can draw on, so you can have plenty of ideas to draw from and that your titles aren’t merely an afterthought.
4. Practice discipline.
As with anything else in life, blogging demands self-discipline. While it is not like working in an office where you have to commute to the deadlines, you shouldn’t take it too lightly. You have to set goals when you start a blog — be it setting a target number of blog posts per week, exploring the social media realm to promote your blog, or collecting email subscribers.
[Tweet “Set goals when blogging to measure effectiveness: number of page views, email subscribers, etc.”]
5. Lure your target audience with an aesthetically pleasing blog design.
Just as your site homepage is the portal to your business, your blog’s design, like a welcome mat, is the portal to your blog. If you settle for a run-of-the-mill, lackluster design, how are you going to get your audience to read—and hopefully subscribe to—your content?
[Tweet “Blog design tip: Every blog post should have an image that helps explain your content.”]
Just as you exert enough effort on creating quality content, presenting it in a way that clearly justifies what your blog is about should also be among your foremost considerations. Links, texts, and images have to be shown off just right. Not showcasing your content in a way that’s both easy to follow and aesthetically pleasing may dissuade your readers from going further and reading more of your blog posts.
6. Choose content that is both interesting and unique.
One of the major setbacks for bloggers who are aspiring for growth is acquiring the ability to come up with unique content. With the vast diversity of blog content already published on the worldwide web, it will seem as though every worthwhile topic has already been adequately covered.
Exceptional, attention-grabbing, unique content is undeniably one of the major factors in blogging success. Consider the blogs that you come across and put yourself in your readers’ shoes. You want to visit blogs whose content is interesting, relevant and something you can’t find elsewhere. Be that resource for your blog readers!
Sure, not all of your posts need to be groundbreaking. Your topics may be similar to what’s already available out there, but you surely can let your creative juices flow to formulate something that will make you get ahead of the pack.
[Tweet “#Bloggingtips Add analogies and personal experience for a fresh spin on generic topics.”]
For example, you can put your own spin on popular topics. Add analogies that elaborate on core concepts to make them easier to understand. Remember: diligence is key and success entails taking risks—and a lot of it.
7. Know where you should promote your blog.
If you have already gone through a lot of effort to come up with great content, then do yourself a huge favor by promoting your blog in the right places. Do this by sharing your links on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. Send links to key influencers and email posts to your list. Good content deserves more exposure and the best way to do it is to systematically share it online.
Ciao,
Miss Kemya
This is a guest post by Vincent Hill. Vincent Hill is an expert writer who writes on different categories like how to start a blog, content writing, blog design and much more. His writing is not only descriptive but also meaningful. He loves to share his ideas on different categories.
