Blogging is simply taking your thoughts, opinions and experiences and putting them down in the form of words. With the explosion of blogging platforms, getting yourself published on the world wide web has become easier than ever before. At the same time, this also means that it can be difficult for your blog to stand out from the crowd and capture a dedicated following. Through our experience, the best blogs usually have a few common principles. Here are our best tips on how to start a blog and catapult its reader base. If you’re looking at building a popular blog, success could be just 30 days away!
Step 1: Do you have the traits of a successful blogger?
Anyone can become a blogger, but only a few will become successful bloggers. The most popular bloggers have several traits in common that directly translate into their work ethic and the content that they publish.
The most common traits include:
● Passion
● Discipline
● Perseverance
● Creativity
● Unique personality
● Strong network
● Sense of humour
● Voracious reader
If you check most of these, then you might have what it takes to become a top blogger.
Step 2: Build a roadmap to your destination
You need to have a clear vision in your mind about what you want your blog to be about and where you want to reach. Once you have this goal in mind, you can chart out a roadmap to help you get there.
Creating a vision for your blog can be broken down into the following steps:
● Finding the core purpose for your blog
● Identifying your niche
● Gaining a deeper understanding of your audience
● Setting up achievable goals
● Finding a product category you can potentially endorse
● Building a strong email database
Step 3: Selecting the right blogging platform
There are a number of blogging platforms, but you need to choose the one that best suits your unique requirements. This can help you build your blog from scratch and scale it up when the time comes.
Some of the most popular blogging platforms include:
● Wordpress.org: This is one of the most customisable and easy-to-use platforms, perfect for a first-time blogger.
● Blogger: This is one of the oldest blogging platforms and comes with a number of pre-built templates.
● Medium: This platform has one of the best user experiences and doesn’t require any technical expertise to get started.
● Wordpress.com: Not to be confused with Wordpress.org, Wordpress.com offers separate plans for personal, premium and business
Step 4: Choose the right blogging tools
The right tools can make the life of a blogger infinitely easier. These tools range from ones that can help improve your content, to those that can improve your blog’s visibility and performance.
Here are the top tools to start using for your new blog:
● Grammarly: Never make another typo with this handy proofreading tool.
● Google Analytics: Every blog needs to be tracked with Google Analytics to gain a better understanding of its performance.
● Yoast SEO: Even if you don’t know a lot about search engine optimisation, Yoast can help you increase your blog’s organic performance.
● Canva: Canva is a very useful platform to create visually striking images without requiring any design know-how.
Step 4: Creating a content marketing strategy
While creativity is undoubtedly an important aspect of a successful blog, strategy is the one differentiator that can take a blog from obscurity to virality.
Here are the key elements of a strong content marketing strategy to put in place for your new blog:
● Frequency of blogs: Decide the frequency with which you will post new content and stick to this schedule come what may.
● Choose the right blog categories: Categories make it easier for your users to navigate through your content.
● Stay relevant: Keep yourself up-to-date on trending topics and current events so you can cover them in your blog.
● Make an editorial calendar: Plan the content for your blog at least a month in advance, so you have a clear-cut direction for your blog.
Step 5: Collaborate with other bloggers
In blogging, as with many other professions, you are only as good as your network. Engaging with other bloggers has a number of benefits, all of which can propel your blog to success. The first advantage is that you can learn from seasoned bloggers who will have a lot of tips and advice to share with you from their experience. Secondly, it gives you an opportunity to partner with them. By guest posting on their blog or having them give you a shout-out on their blog, you will be reaching their large audience, thus gaining instant recognition.
Blogging can be the ultimate way to get your voice heard and reach a huge audience. While the above steps are crucial ingredients in a successful blog strategy, ultimately the success or failure of a blog comes down to how much work and passion you put into it.