Hey there, I am Stefan an analyst at Virtono, last time we spoke about why you would need a blog, and now I am planning on giving you tips & tricks on making it successful.
Quick recap:
- Your online blog will help you with SEO, given that you offer genuine good pieces of information, and you are using a few keywords to keep Google and other search engines happy.
- You will keep your customers engaged and coming back for more, so in a word, recurrence.
- Remember email marketing? This is the way to grow that email list.
- You will create a community around your brand and in turn loyal customers.
- It will be good for talent finding along the way.
So, better SEO, more site visitors, a bigger email list for email marketing, increased customer loyalty, a bigger social reach, and new ways of expanding your team, all the key components for an online business!
Now that you are all up to date, we should talk about ways to start your blog.
Starting can seem like a scary experience, especially if you’ve never built a website before. Fortunately for you, it is way simpler than you think. In just a couple of hours, you can go from never having an online presence to having a fully functional blog ready to push you through your internet journey.
This article is meant to show you how to find your niche, how to choose the right platform for you, how to name your blog, how to choose the best hosting provider for the job, how to build out your site and publish your first post, and more.
What exactly is a blog?
A blog is a website that focuses on written content and is a way for people to talk about their preferences, passions, and ideas.
You will find blogs on every imaginable topic, from personal blogs to business blogs and even that niche that Buzzfeed is covering, you know what I am talking about.
Blogging is the foundation for a lot of successful online businesses, with the right web hosting package and support you have the potential to turn your blog into an online brand.
How to start a blog in 10 easy steps!
Starting one is a relatively easy task, running it will take time and work on your part.
Here are the steps that you need to cross off your checklist:
Step 1: Choose your niche!
Before you start doing anything technical or strategical you need to sit down and think about what you want to put out there.
You see, your niche will be more than just a topic or a market segment that you approach. It’s about your unique background, your knowledge base, your authenticity, your niche should give your blog a focus and it should guide your design and it should bring out the unique values that you are trying to give to your visitors
Step 2: Research your market.
Now even if you are a fully pledged expert in the niche that you have chosen, it doesn’t mean that you understand what makes a successful blog in that space. At this stage, you should take some time to learn about your competition, and see what the most successful ones are doing.
Remember:
imitate success and you will succeed.
Here are some strategic tips & tricks for when you are researching your competition, remember I am an analyst 📈
- What are the topic areas that they cover? (you will more often than not find them listed as categories somewhere on the website)
- How are the blogs structured? (different topics come with different attention spans so pay attention to the general outlook of your competition blogs)
- What are the most popular posts? (why apply trial and error, when you can see what already works for your competition)
As you proceed and check your competition also look for any gaps that they might have missed and be sure to provide something that none of the other blogs do! Here is a silver lining you will have to tread carefully, trust your instincts.
Search trends and ride the waves, the best entrepreneurial advice that you can get is:
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome!
Step 3: Name your blog…
Well, you found your niche, you did your research now let’s get to the hardest part of them all, NAMING.
The name should spring out of your topic, it should be descriptive and memorable but easy to roll out. This can be tricky because you need to find something that is not already been taken.
Write down keywords related to your niche, and use your imagination, keep in mind that that name that you choose should be also available as a domain name.
Once you got some ideas use domain search tools, to see what is available.
GOOD LUCK!
Step 4: Create a content calendar.
Hopefully, you managed to name your blog and you also found a domain to go with it. Now it’s time to let your creative energy flow.
Write, write and write some more, this will help you get some momentum going so you don’t fall out before you even start.
You should decide on a few main topics to write about, think of them as “buckets of information”. Narrow down your focus to the most important topics in the buckets.
Keep in mind that this will help you build your online identity and will make your website look more organized, which in turn will help your readers and will attract more and repeat visitors.
A content calendar or if you want to be formal an editorial calendar is a publishing schedule. You will use it to track assignments, due dates, content types, distribution channels, and most important, publishing dates.
Ultimately it is your planner tool that helps you publish consistent content on a regular schedule.
How to create a content calendar?
Glad you asked, I will guide you through the process, just follow these steps.
“Brainstorming” time!
Create your foundation with the “buckets of information” then lay bricks on top of that, topics that keep the trend going but are also “different”.
This process will help you establish your point of view and it will show that you know what you are talking about. The more ideas, the better!
Do not stop at the foundation and the bricks, keep writing down blog article ideas, just like building a house, you will also need detailed work, topics that sometimes may break the guidelines but that just complete your aesthetic that much better. Trust your creative process and your mind.
List out import holidays.
If you may encounter a creative blockage, and a holiday is right around the corner you will remember this article and thank me for it.
Generally speaking, holidays are just a privilege to speak about your ideas from a jolly point of view.
Black Friday is around the corner, great, talk about your topics but throw some discounts on there.
Keep a list of important holidays and have an article prepared for each one. Easy!
Look at other editorial calendars for inspiration.
You did your research, didn’t you? Well, if you did it surely gave you some ideas of how other blogs structure their posting schedule, timing, media, and topics.
Do not be afraid to “borrow” ideas and make them your own it’s ok, I give you the permission!
Last but not least, create a schedule!
You should go with whatever format feels right for you. A spreadsheet, a digital calendar, or a paper calendar (I like you, you are classy).
Creating a schedule in advance will help you stick to blogging since you will always know what to write about and you have deadlines to meet, you are basically using psychological tricks on yourself!
Get to work champ!
Step 5: Choosing a blogging platform. CMS? WHAT?
Did that abbreviation intimidate you? No need, it just means Content Management System (CMS) surely you already know one, wanna take a guess?
WORDPRESS!
Luckily, you do not need to know how to code to start a blog, because several software options will let you design and publish your blog without using any programming language.
How? With MAGIC of course!
By far the most popular choice for bloggers is WordPress, why you might ask… well:
- It’s free and open source;
- It’s easy to use;
- It comes with a lot of themes, which make building a website that much easier;
- A lot of plug-ins, for every functionality there is a plug-in;
- Do you want to learn more? Well, lucky you, there are so many resources to help you learn how to use WordPress at a master level!
Want to ease your process, choose a hosting company that is WordPress friendly, and guess what… Virtono is optimized for WordPress.
Step 6: Purchase web hosting
The idea is to have your blog up on the internet, and this is possible only via a hosting provider. You are going to need a solid web hosting company behind you, good support, and the latest technology and hardware.
Luckily for you, we are here. We have a wide variety of services to cover all your needs and we are always here to help you set up everything.
You don’t have to believe me, matter of fact I hope you can contradict me. That is why I have a special offer for you.
Pay 1 Euro and get 6 months of any hosting plan, you can test it and if you do not like it you are free to go.
Use the code: 1EURO at checkout.
Step 7: Build your blog.
The first step is to install WordPress with your hosting account. If you chose Virtono as your provider, you will be able to do this with just one simple click.
From there you will be able to create your website within WordPress itself. You will find a lot of great-looking themes that you will be able to customize to your liking.
After choosing a theme and activating* it by logging into your WordPress account, you are ready to focus on content.
*Appearance>Themes, click ‘Add New’. Perform a search for your chosen theme’s name, then click Activate, and Customize.
Step 8: Start writing!
You will want to have a variety of content before you really start promoting your blog, there is no better way to disappoint a visitor than for him to want to read more and not have any articles to go to.
Refer to your content calendar and start creating content.
A few key points to follow:
- Find a catchy article title and use some keywords in it;
- Add media, images or videos that add more to your topic;
- Write useful information.
Make sure you always proofread your blog posts before publishing. Embarrassing typos or sentences that don’t make much sense can drive first-time readers away, you do not want to make a bad firs-impression.
Step 9: Publish your first post. Finally!
You did it! You are ready to publish your first post.
Within WordPress, select Posts>Add New from the left-hand menu.
Once you’re satisfied with your blog post click ‘Publish’ and your post will be live.
Great job!
Step 10: Promote your blog!
If you are planning for your words to reach a lot of people (which is probably why you started this journey), you can’t just press “Publish” and hope for the best. You have to work to make your blog post easy to find.
Here is no right path that you can walk, you should do a little of everything and find what is best working for you.
Besides unconventional marketing strategies that you might want to try you should also consider:
- SEO – What is the use of writing a blog post that is not discoverable on the search engine? So, for making a post more visible in a search engine like Google, you need to SEO optimize it.
Here are some quick tips to SEO optimize your blog post:
- Use keyword in the title;
- Use keywords throughout the content reasonably;
- Write the title tag of the blog post using a SEO tool;
- Write a meta description of the post using a SEO tool;
- Add keyword in the alt tags of the images;
- Use keyword in the URL of the blog post;
- Use keywords in the sub-headings.
- Social Media – Promoting on social media is a good way to reach a lot of people, you know the basics never fail so do some Facebook marketing, or if you are into more detailed work go for influencer marketing.
- Guest posting – This is a great way to reach new audiences, you will have to use your inner salesperson and pitch guest post ideas to related websites. If you manage to impress their audience, they gain more quality content and you may attract some traffic to your own website.
Win-Win, that’s how business is done!
- PPC advertising – If you have money to spend, pay-per-click advertising is a way to make sure your blog shows up to new readers in your early days.
The process of creating a blog and sharing your thought or expertise with the world can be an awesome experience. Whatever you do remember to have fun, and enjoy the journey.
And remember the first step to success is starting, so get started with just 1 Euro for 6 months at Virtono.
Use code: 1EURO at checkout.
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