How To Get Started On Your Blogging Journey

StrategyDriven Insights Audio

Blogging can be many things to many different people. To some, it is a hobby. They can talk happily about the subjects that interest them, and engage with like-minded individuals who also feel a passion for the same topic. For others, blogging is a side-line, a great way of earning money alongside your regular income. Many people, however, can turn their blogs into their full-time jobs and earn a lucrative income from the content that they create. Businesses will also use blogs to fantastic effect as a way of raising awareness of their own brands. It is important to never underestimate the potential of blogging.

If you have ever thought about blogging, you should understand that with the right amount of effort, and with great content, it is possible to create a successful blog that will be ready by countless people, while generating you a reasonable, if not, substantial income.

But if you don’t know your WordPress, from your Yoast, or your affiliate marketing from your search engine optimization, here is some great advice to get you started on your very own blogging journey.

Pick A Niche

You will have a few decisions to make early on in your life as a blogger. The first one is to decide on the niche that you will write in. You might be able to write confidently and inspiringly in a number of subjects, and if you can do this, and link them all together, you can cover a range of topics on your blog. Generally, readers will have an interest in a specific niche, and if your blog covers too big a range of topics it can get confusing. Stick to the areas that you are the most knowledgable and passionate in. Make sure you pick a subject that you have enough milage in, you will need to write about this on most days for a very long time to come.

Pick Your Platform

There are lots of different blogging platforms out there. Some will host your site on their servers, and in others, such as wordpress.org, you will need to buy for your own hosting from a company such as Bluehost.

Read all about the various platforms that are available and try and understand the differences and what the benefits and limitations of each one are. This is a big decision, and, while it is possible to migrate your blog to a different platform and host at a later date, it is quite a stressful and time-consuming process to carry out.

Creating Great Content

The reason that your readers will visit your site is for your content. You need to regularly create great content. Try and stick to a schedule so that you are posting to a reasonable frequency. Many sites will posts a couple of times a day. You don’t have to post each day, however, if you are going to post six or seven posts all at once, and then not update the site for a month or so, this is not going to do you any favours when it comes to building repeat readerships. If your readers know that they can expect new content on a regular basis, it will keep you fresh in their minds.

Make sure that your posts are of a reasonable length. The bare minimum a blog post should ever be is 300 words, however, longer-form content often fares well, so aim to write posts that are much higher in their word counts.

Include a striking image with your post and a catchy title. You need to bring your readers in any way that you can.

Monetizing Your Content

When you have a reasonably large readership, you should be able to start earning money from your blog. There are many ways that you can do this, though affiliate marketing is one of the most popular. The way that affiliate marketing works is that you will insert a link to a product or service in your blog. This will act as a recommendation to your readers, and, if anyone signs up or buys whatever the link is offering, you can earn a commission.

Remember, if you are using affiliate marketing on your blog, you need to be perfectly clear that you are earning money from the links that you are sharing. Create a disclaimer or disclosure page on your site and make sure and link it on any relevant posts that use this type of affiliate link.

You could also monetize your blog by using adverts, or by selling paid content such as eBooks, or by offering up your services as a consultant in your area of expertise, or as a content writer.

Socializing

Your blog needs readers. You can obtain these by sharing your posts on social media. Create social media profiles and build up a strong following on as many platforms as possible. Engage with your followers and make sure that they are engaging with your content.

Social media promotion is a vital way of generating visitors to your site, and you need to do everything that you can to build up relationships. The bigger your following, the wider your reach.

Search Engine Optimization

An area that all bloggers need to learn about and understand is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO involves getting your website as high in the internet search engine rankings as possible. If you are not in the first few results on any relevant search, then your site won’t be found by people looking at Google.

SEO is a wide subject that covers everything from inserting relevant keywords in the right places in your content, through to building up a web of links between all of your pages. By inserting a link back to relevant content elsewhere on your blog, you will be helping to optimize your website. You should also include links to other sites, and try and get your site linked to from as many external sites as possible.