Here are 8 helpful tips, if you want to start your own blogging business. This is how you should build your blog:
1. Don’t let the technical side stop you.
For the technical part, there are online tutorials for any problem you could encounter. Take on the issues as they come. You can make this work, no technical know-how is needed.
2. Start with the end in mind
Determine your goals. If you’re hoping to make an income with blogging, start with a different goal in mind. Go into it with the mindset of “How can I help others?” Once you’ve made that mindset shift, pick a topic.
3. Pick a topic
Blog about something that you do already know about but that can help a lot of people. Any topic you’re an expert on could be helpful to someone else. Create a list of topics that you can speak about knowledgeably, then see how many searches there are for the topic. Use the Google Chrome plugin “Keywords Anywhere” for this. For a little fee, you will get a good idea of which topics will serve an audience best.
4. Map out a journey
Think about your audience. If you want to write for beginners, then you’ll be starting with the basics. If you want to teach a more intermediate skill, then imagine where your reader might be starting from and plan your content in a linear fashion that will help them best.
5. Make offers along the way
Instead of blogging for free forever and just hoping that opportunities will show up, make offers from time to time. As soon as you’ve built up some readership, you can either use your blog to sell digital materials that will help people directly, or you can create blog posts that will show them the best products for them and get a small cut from the sales of those products.
6. Stay consistent
Consistency is the main reason most new bloggers fail. Determine how often you blog and stick to it. That could be once a day, or it could be once a week. Whichever you choose, your readers will begin to rely on you, so don’t let them down by disappearing. This consistent posting will help with your Google ranking, too. It’s better to be regular. If you’re worried about having something fresh to say every week, then write your content in advance and release it out on a schedule.
7. Review your metrics and adjust accordingly
As you learn more and your blog matures, you’ll learn about all kinds of stats you can track, from traffic numbers to Alexa ranking and more.
Don’t let these numbers concern you in the beginning, but once you’re established, start to pay attention to them so you can learn what kind of content is the most popular and what makes you the most money. Not only will these metrics help you immensely, you’ll also feel rewarded when you get to watch your readership grow.
8. Build as you go
Don’t feel compelled to have an email list and five social profiles at once when you first start out. It’s ok to build the blog, write the blog, then add email, then add social, etc. If you take on too much at once, you’re likely to get frustrated and burn out. Building one step at a time is a much smarter way to go about it.
You won’t get rich with writing a blog overnight. Your blog needs time to develop and target the right audience with the right information. If you’re creating quality content consistently, eventually you’ll see that your audience will grow. So keep going and keep getting better. You’ll be surprised at how rewarding blogging can be.
Sven Franssen