It has never been easier to start a blog! You can set up a Tumblr or WordPress account in a few minutes and begin sharing your thoughts with the rest of the world. However, if you want to create a successful blog, it’s not relatively that straightforward.
You must understand a few essential concepts before writing your first blog post. This article will share five images to help you create a successful blog that you can be proud of!
1. Having a plan is essential for making your blog a success
Starting a new blog is just like starting any new enterprise — if you want it to be successful, you must plan every step. If you don’t have a vision for your blog, it won’t do well in search engines, won’t attract readers, and won’t achieve the goals you have set for it. Thankfully, creating a plan for your blog is relatively simple.
Determine the goals of your blog
Think about why you are blogging. Are you promoting a business? Are you attempting to make money via blog monetization? Or is your blog just a place where you express your thoughts? It helps to define specific goals for your blog, including how much content is posted, how many visitors it will attract each month, and how much revenue it will generate.
Decide what the blog will be about
Most successful blogs focus on a specific niche. Decide your place based on your overall goals, what you enjoy writing about, and what you think readers will be interested in. If you are interested in making money from your blog and ranking well within search engines, you may have to perform extensive keyword research and niche research before settling on a blog topic.
Research your competitors
If you are blogging for a business or to make money, look closely at your competitors’ blogs. Do they have any great ideas which you can use? What keywords do they rank for in search engines? How often do they write blog posts? Assess how difficult it will be to create a better blog than theirs. Tools like BuzzSumo and SEMRush can help you with keywords, content & competitor research.
Choose a blogging platform & hosting.
There are dozens of different online blogging platforms that you can use, including WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, and Squarespace. You might prefer to have your server, which gives you more control over your blog’s features. Weigh up each platform’s convenience, cost, accessibility, and features. If you are passionate that your blog will receive tons of traffic, you need to think about website speed and performance. Hence, research what different hosting companies have to offer.
Choose an appropriate blog theme.
A blog’s “theme” is its design. Pick a theme that matches the goals of your blog, your intended audience, and the blog’s topic. If you are planning to write about accounting & finance, make sure you’re not using some fancy & over-animated theme.
As the mobile search proliferates, it’s essential to choose a responsive theme that will adjust to any screen size, with the ability to adapt for Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).
Decide how often you will be posting.
A blog must have a regular stream of original, valuable content to be successful. Determine how much time you have for writing blogs each week and how much content you will require to beat your competitors.
Decide how you will promote your blog.
Make a plan for how you will promote your blog. Will you use social media? Will you implement Google Adwords or any other sort of Pay Per Click advertising? Will you consider making manual outreach and guest contributions?
Decide how you will track the success of your blog
Choose an analytics platform to integrate with your blog so you clearly understand how well it is doing.
2. Your blog is more likely to succeed if it is social
The popularity of social media has exploded in recent years. Social media users share millions of pieces of content with each other daily on various platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Google Plus. To increase the number of visitors to your blog, you should harness the power of social media as much as possible. Create social media profiles that d to your blog and allow the user to share your posts via social media. If you create great content, you will see a massive influx of visitors from social media!
3. Content is king!
Good blogs ALWAYS have great content. Don’t be stingy when writing the content for your blog. It must be original, engaging, and valuable for your readers. If you write high-quality content, search engines will pick it up, and it will explode in popularity on social media. Never skimp on content!
4. You may have to learn basic Search Engine Optimization
If you focus on a successful blog that attracts many readers, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will be necessary. Basic SEO techniques will help you create a blog that search engines will love, resulting in higher ranking pages and more visitors.
5. Relationships matter
Blogging is a social activity that allows a blogger to engage with readers and other bloggers. If you want to ensure the success of your blog, focus on engaging readers and creating relationships via your blog. Reply to people who make comments, talk to other bloggers & influencers, and write guest posts for other blogs. Think of your blog as part of a conversation with others. That will help you build a loyal audience who loves your blog and regularly share it with others!
We hope you enjoyed reading the five things you need to know before starting a blog. These techniques will help you succeed as a blogger!
