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Tips For Starting Your First Blog
Starting your first blog can feel like a daunting endeavour. Even if you manage to make it through the initial setup process, sitting there staring at a blank white screen daring you to type something can be overwhelming. Everything from initially setting up your blog through using premium or cheapest website builder to managing it once it’s up and running can cause difficulties, but you don’t need to view starting a blog as an intimidating process. Here are 10 tips for starting your first blog, whether you’re a seasoned writer or a complete blogging beginner.
1. Don’t quit your day job
First and foremost, you need to make sure that you’ve got a solid income as a blogger. This may not happen via your blog for quite some time, so it might be a good idea to keep your day job while you’re getting established in your industry. If you absolutely must leave your job and take on blogging full-time before you’re able to make a consistent income, then you might want to look into other ways to keep yourself afloat; online personal loans can be a good way to get a quick cash injection before a more long-term situation establishes itself.
2. Be an expert
There are millions of blogs out there written by people who aren’t experts in their fields. This isn’t necessarily an issue if they’re writing about their personal experience, but if your blog is in any way related to an industry, then you need to make sure you’re an expert. This will lead people to your blog naturally; when they’re looking for the answers to certain questions, they’ll come across your content, and if you’re able to be authoritative and knowledgeable, you’ll quickly become a leader in your field.
3. Write for humans
Are you sitting there, staring at your first empty blog post, wondering how to write for your intended audience? Here’s a hot tip: write like you’re writing for people. It might sound obvious, but too many bloggers write in a stiff, awkward way, and as a result, they lose that crucial human element that endears readers to them. When you’re writing your post, try to imagine that a single person is reading it rather than a whole audience, and you’ll find your tone quickly.
4. Optimise for SEO
SEO is one of the most crucial elements of writing a blog. Without good SEO, your website will be practically invisible to search engines like Google and Bing. Good SEO consists of short, concise sentences, long-form content intercut with keywords and SEO-friendly phrases, and including images with optimised metadata. If you optimise for SEO, you’ll quickly see your Google ranking increase, as more and more people searching for relevant terms find your blog.
5. Stay away from black hat SEO
While SEO is critical, you absolutely shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking it’s all you need to write for. Legibility and organic-feeling content are also both very important; if you simply jam your blog full of SEO keywords, you’re actually likely to be ranked much lower, because Google will detect that you’re using underhanded SEO techniques and punish you accordingly. Finding the sweet spot between writing organically and writing for SEO is the best way forward for your blog.
6. Respond to comments
If you’re lucky enough to get lots of comments on your blog, first let us congratulate you; many users won’t comment on the blogs they read, so you’re already getting more engagement than the vast majority of bloggers do. However, it’s important to keep that momentum going, so be sure to respond to as many of those comments as you can. 10 Tips For Starting Your First Blog, This will keep your audience interested in your content and engaged with you as a writer, which will likely lead to more eyes on your content in the long term!
7. Pick a platform and domain name
When you’re writing a blog for a company or brand, you won’t need to worry too much about picking your platform or domain name, as they’re probably already decided for you. As an independent blogger, however, picking these things is important. There are various blog hosting platforms out there; the most popular is WordPress, but there are other options if you don’t like WordPress for whatever reason. Your domain name is also crucial; it should be catchy, evocative, and clever, but also easy to spell and remember.
There are quite a few platforms available that provide the service of domain name purchase, renewal, and maintenance. Once you’ve decided which platform to use, check if the domain is available and which additional addons and services are included and offered by the platform or the hosting provider.
8. Try to find a niche
Blogging for everyone about general topics is an art form that few bloggers manage to pull off. The most successful bloggers have managed to find a niche for themselves; they’re able to write for a specific audience about a specific subject, but that means their audience mostly comes to them for content about that subject. That’s one of the key secrets to blogging success; find yourself a niche and write for that niche, and you’ll see your standing increase.
9. Read your competition
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’re better than your blogging competitors without reading their content. Make sure to research other bloggers as much as you can; spend time on their blogs reading their content, seeing what they’re doing well and where you could improve on their formula. Read their comments, too; those comments might contain feedback for those bloggers that you can then incorporate into your own content.
10. Don’t give up
Tips For Starting Your First Blog can sometimes feel daunting, especially when your readership is low. The important thing is not to give up. Blogging isn’t a fast track to success and wealth; it can be a long, arduous road. If you love what you do, then you shouldn’t have too much of a problem doing it for little reward to begin with (although you should, of course, pursue any paid opportunities with aplomb). Determination and perseverance separate amateur bloggers from true professionals!
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