Make a list of topics you would talk about
Now that you have a mind for something, you will need to get out there and start talking about your thoughts.
You can focus on putting ideas down on paper (which is very important), but your first step should be figuring out what you are going to say and how you are going to say it.
Figuring this out will take some brainstorming and planning. In this section, we will also discuss ways to structure your content so you can reach your goal of becoming a popular blogger.
Narrow down your list of topics to 1-2
Once you’ve finished your research, narrow it down to a few topics.
During your research phase, prioritize quality over quantity. That is, even if you only have time to read 5 blogs per day, choose the ones that are well written and offer lots of value, and drop the others.
In the early stages of starting a blog, there will almost always be extra time. You will spend too much time doing stuff that doesn’t help grow your brand or drive traffic to your blog.
Focus on the tasks that do matter, instead of wasting time on unnecessary actions.
Blogging Costs
There are a couple of costs that come with blogging, like hosting cost, domain name cost, etc.
The cost of hosting and domain name is something you can’t get around you have to pay in order to start your blogging business.
It may seem a lot at first but it’s pretty cheap compared to the cost of running and starting other businesses like restaurants.
Find a niche
Once you’ve signed up for a blogger account or started your own website, you can start concentrating on writing posts and creating content. But how will people know that you exist? What topic or genre of content do you have that they might want to read about?
This is called your niche.
It is what you specialize in and is most interesting to you. Your blog should be about your passions and hobbies, things that you are interested in, and feel comfortable sharing with others.
Some niches ideas would be camping, pets, parenting, technology, relationships, etc.
Your blog’s goal is to create an audience and drive traffic to your website, so choose a topic that is relevant to someone, try your hardest not to bore them, and keep coming up with new ideas and blog posts.
There are many ways to find your blogging niche, but here are some strategies to help get you started:
Go into your favorite blogs and see if there is a theme or subject matter that you enjoy and write well-researched articles about.
You can also look at lifestyle blogs and ask questions to learn more about the topics they cover. For example, you may think “I really like this style of music,” or “I love reading reviews about technology.”
Try joining other forums and groups focused on your niche. People who are passionate about something they love or believe in will want to connect with other like-minded people.
These connections may lead them to become even more involved by contributing money, work, guest posts, and hell these connections may become lifetime friendships. Who knows they may open new opportunities.
Find your voice
Your blog needs to come from a place where you feel comfortable, confident and secure. If you’re trying to show people something that is not real, then you will likely have a difficult time being heard. No one wants to read about it (unless it happens to be interesting).
It’s good to be honest with your readers, but always tell them what you want them to know. Don’t make things harder for yourself than they need to be.
Your words are the most important thing about you, so choose them with care. When you write, use all of your senses. Try to enjoy the feeling of writing as much as possible.
When you’re just doing it to keep your word count low, you’re already halfway there. The better you get at reading your audience and knowing what will sell and what will push them away, the better writer you will become.
Voice is key and comes in many forms. It can be through incorporating memes into your posts or having a vivid imagination, etc. Figuring out which form you use and applying that to your work will help people see your unique style.
Your readers will appreciate your unique style.
Keep developing your voice because while learning how to speak is great, speaking and writing like other people will only get you so far.
Images, images, and more images
Without pictures or graphics to go along with your writing, people will read your posts but they’ll never look at them. In addition, when people see your content, they’re going to be wondering about you and your story.
By using photos and visuals, not only do you provide interesting stories, and they also help make your articles easier to read. People are visual learners, so pics can make things much clearer and simpler.
And if someone asks why you write these helpful posts, you can say that you love sharing information and easy-to-follow tips.
People want something new and unexpected from you, which is one of the biggest reasons people start blogs in the first place!
You should always consider what else could possibly inspire people to keep reading your article once you’ve written it. If there’s nothing for them to get until later, then they may skip your entire article.
Put yourself in their shoes before sending out an article idea. Is this article inspiring anyone? Are readers trying to figure out where this piece came from? This is how you measure success.
With pictures in your articles, it will make your readers look at your articles a bit longer.
Make your content easy to read
It’s impossible to write a good story if your writing is hard to read. You want people who are reading your work to be able to understand what you wrote. If you want people to read what you have to say, it is important that their first impression is good.
If you use complicated words or phrases that only other writers and readers find familiar, it can make your writing difficult to digest. Use simple sentences with ample rest between them for your information to get through.
Also, try not to overuse adjectives and adverbs in your writing. While some writers prefer these words because they feel they add excitement to their writing, overusing these punctuation marks can make your prose read more monotone.
By using a less active voice in your writing, you increase your chances of the reader understanding what you said. The idea is to put yourself in the reader’s place as much as possible.
If there are too many abbreviations or word forms that look like codes, this can make readers feel distracted and tired as they try to understand what you’re saying.
You will also want to avoid using too much jargon, tech talk, or other languages that may seem familiar, but could be difficult for some readers.
Headers in paragraphs should always lead with a question instead of an answer; this makes sentences more reader-friendly and gives clues as to where the topic is going.
An excellent tool for improving the readability of your work is fbreader, available for both pc and mac. It comes with mobile devices and allows the conversion of any document into something readable.
Consider having a mentor or coach
Who knows about your business better than you do? Someone else may have insights that help grow your blogging website. You can ask friends and family members, colleagues, and bosses to be your mentors.
You can also buy courses on blogging from other bloggers online to learn some tips that they do to increase their audience size and traffic to their website.
You could also hire someone to create or edit your posts for you. This person would need to know how to make content creative and important enough for people to read.
Always produce content
There are many ways to increase website traffic, but one of the most direct is by producing more content for your website.
Content works in multiple directions; it not only helps people find each other and their needs but also gives them reasons to return to your site.
Provide quality content and they will come back for more. They’ll start with your own page, then move through links, and eventually, others will share or comment on what they like.
Blogging on a website is a marathon, not a sprint, you are building a business from the ground up so your mindset has to shift into delayed gratification instead of instant gratification from the result of blogging.
You can use social media, other blogs, videos, or several different methods. The important thing about creating content is to have faith that something good will happen because you put effort into it.
That luck will help you more than you work hard. You want subscribers who read your posts, followers who follow you on social media, and readers who visit your pages.
All these things need to come from some sort of content production. Even if you are not a writer, you should still write new articles every month.
If you don’t feel comfortable writing, you can hire someone who writes well to create content for you.
Either way, you must produce content to promote your business and interests. This article has provided you with an introduction to how to begin doing this.