Starting a blog has never been easier with the free WordPress tools here at Web Host Pro’s Web Hosting Plans. You can have the same software all the big bloggers use within minutes. With the playing field so level, it becomes more about how you run the blog than just getting one started. Once your blog looks great, is secure, and the performance is optimized, you can start your journey off smoothly with these essential “starting a blog” tips.
1. Find a niche
The first thing and most important is to think about who will read your blog. The people who read your blog are also the people who will buy your products, join your mailing lists, and become part of your community. A good trick is to find your competitor and see who uses their blog. You can learn a lot from researching other blogs that are already established in your chosen niche. Once you know who will read your blog, you can start to target the content and niche they will want to see.
2. Once you define your niche, find a way to be different or better
Once you have defined your target audience and the topics they want to read, you would still want to hone in further with topics you can specialize in. For example, if you have a makeup product you want to push, you could research makeup blogs, then you can target the type of makeup you want to get out there, how to use it, and what it can do. You can apply this same principle to almost any niche. In this example, a makeup blog would be too vague, targeting a type of makeup, how to use it, and what it can do would be better.
3. Find topics based on the people who will read your blog
I know it sounds obvious, but it’s one of the most overlooked mistakes made with bloggers. You can’t please everyone, and making quality content for the masses will just leave you spread too thin for people to truly relate. After you know who your readers are, find out their habits and the books and websites they like to use and read. As a blogger, you are catering to your readers, nothing will make them happier than a specific blog post on exactly what they want to hear or learn. How-to’s with videos do great right now!
4. Choose a schedule for posting
As you establish a following and build your community, they will want to know when they can come back and read more. By choosing the same day or days a week to post, they will get in the habit of visiting those days and appreciate your service more. As for which day, that depends on your readers. For example, clubbers would want their content right before the weekend, whereas business people would prefer content on Monday morning.
5. Choose a budget
By deciding ahead of time how much you are willing to spend on marketing your blog, you can get in the habit of what you need from the marketing venues. So much money is wasted on marketing efforts that don’t have long-term effects. Think about what you can spend on that will build a following and community, not just a quick sale. Also keep SEO in mind, getting a nice link with your keywords will give long-term benefits and hopefully, one day get your listing on the first page of Google. If you have a free product or want to funnel emails, social networks can be a great cheap way to advertise, products and hard sales do better with pay-per-click.
6. Sign up for every major social network and link to it to and from your blog
If you don’t have time to activate every social network, at least get a Twitter, Instagram, Google +, YouTube, and Facebook page. Make sure and juice up the followers and likes in the beginning so you have an image of being more serious. Also, make sure to customize each social network with quality images and up-to-date information. Lastly, make sure to add a link back to your blog’s pages on your social network posts and on the main social network page. Don’t just rely on your brand, people like to click on things they are told if the content is interesting and forget very easily.
7. Spend more time on each post
Adding a longer, more thorough post with images, videos, proper keywords, and graphs will get your reader more engaged. Once they see the depth you are willing to spend on the topic they like, it will create a deeper connection that will help grow and build your following. Your keywords should be added about three times a piece on the post and in the title and image tags if possible. We suggest having 5 main keywords you want to always target, and three more for each post’s specific topic. Knowing your exact keywords for your main brand is very important and should be used in every place possible that links back to you. Don’t forget to have the keywords in the actual link back to your blog, Google likes this for SEO reasons.