The word “Blog” was coined when people were getting into a new form of online activity. That is, having your own page webpage online where one can easily share anything they wanted. Stories, experiences, reviews, news, photos and what not. These types of websites were named “Web Logs” and soon after that, the word “Blog” came into existence.
Blogging has come a long way and become a full time profession for many while many blogs have become huge media houses. Blogs like TheVerge, Huffington Post and others. These blogs provide careers to many creative people who produce content for such blogs. There is no limitation to what you can share on a blog. With a page on the internet where you can share news, ideologies, stories and what not, one can potentially get their word out to the whole internet. But then, having a successful blogging career is not an easy task as managing a blog is a testing task to carry. Anyway, if someone wants to start a blog, they should know a few things beforehand to make sure they are well adjusted in the huge blogosphere that they are about to enter.
This is a post about 5 of the most important things you should know before you start your own blog.
#1 Decide a rough idea of the niche you want to work on
I have seen many people giving advise to new bloggers that they should know what they are going to blog about. This is a good advice but I personally feel that strictly sticking to just one niche will not only narrow down your chances of getting exposure, but it will also prevent you from exploring new horizons that you might feel more comfortable with.
What I am trying to say here is, you should have a rough idea of what you are going to blog about. Let’s say you are going to blog about technology but there are so many blogs that focus on all-things-tech. Making yourself stand out from the rest is important so explore the technology niche and look for a sub-niche that feels right to you and makes you unique.
#2 Make sure your blog design is good and appealing
Have you ever visited those confusing old government website and though to yourself, “what am I looking at?”. This is exactly what others feel when your blog does not have a good enough design. WordPress is a great option that you can choose to run your blog on. But if you are a non-tech savvy person, you might face some difficulties with WordPress. This is where the website builders like Wix.com come in. You can choose to start a blog with them and they provide you with a whole suite of things you need to build your website.
You can go as far as booking the domain with them and they will also take care of the hosting which is included in the packet. You will also get to choose your blog design from their premade templates base and I am sure you can find one that suits you well. They also help people who are hosting their websites with them with topics like how to make a website and how to promote your business which means they are not only good for new bloggers, but they also provide great support to existing businesses.
Wix also has a great Blog Editor which comes with plenty of amazing features. Features like being able to search videos across the internet and then being able to embed them are built right in. You can also choose from and embed those cheeky GIF images into your blog post right from their editor.
#3 Content is the King and always will be
Make sure whatever you post on your blog is written after a good research. No one likes to read a half baked post with wrong or inaccurate information. You should also make sure that your posts are precise and to the point as these posts are counted as good content. Use images wherever necessary to make sure that your content is interactive and you can explain so much with a simple use of an image. The formatting of the posts should also be good so that the user can read through the post easily. Linking to appropriate sources where the reader can find more information on a topic is also a great strategy to provide your readers with some extra knowledge that they may want to grab.
#4 If Content is the King, then SEO is the Queen
Content and SEO go together hand to hand. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is the process of optimizing your posts in such a way that it becomes suitable for the search engine bots from Google or Bing etc. to crawl and index posts on your website.
Each post on your blog has three main things that a search engine bot has to crawl. Number of is the Title of the post which is the main headline or title that you assign to each and every post of yours. Then comes the meta description of the post. You might have seen a few sentences on search engine pages that tell you what the link is about. This is what meta description is. Lastly, Schema – it means all the extra data like star ratings, video thumbnails and details and many other things that a search engine bot can crawl on the page. You need to do a good job at SEO if you want your content ranked. If you have Wix in your mind to build your blog on, then you must know about their SEO Wizard feature that will help you optimize your blog post for search engines.
#5 Making a Blog successful takes time, have patience
I have seen so many people thinking that Blogging is just a quick way to earn money. Let me make it clear right away, you don’t make as much money from Blogging as those PRO people you look up to. They have other sources of income. But guess what, there are full fledged media houses running through just one famous blog. You need to work hard, market you blog in a suitable way and make sure you produce the content that people want to read in order to be successful at blogging.
So, these were the 5 most important and basic things that you need to know before you start Blogging. Blogging as a profession is really good and has a lot of scope, provided you have the guts to work hard and do your best.
