Starting a new blog is super easy. You just pick a domain name and install WordPress. Sounds easy right? Wrong!
True, the best blogs are backed by great hosting platforms and have catching domain names, but there’s so much more to it than that.
This guide you will learn what matters in blogging and what you should simply do to create a great blog that drives traffic and tons of interaction.
The 5 Steps of Starting a Blog
If you are a newbie, you should follow these 5 basic steps to start your blog:
- Decide your blog’s domain name. Choose a reliable and proven platform and hosting solution.
- Choose a theme for your new blog. It is always recommended to choose something light, attractive and fast.
- Make your blog unique.
- Install the required plugins.
- Start creating compelling blog posts that deliver value to your readers.
Once you have your blog setup, you should start delivering value. But how to do that. Here are the 3 golden rules for doing so.
1. Start with Your Audience
Nothing beats this rule of blogging. You can’t create a successful blog if you don’t know what your audience wants!
This will require a lot of research and this is where you should spend more of your time. In fact, the time spent can be even more than what you spend on actually writing your posts. Remember, the best bridges are not constructed in a week. The best bridges are the ones where the engineers have spent more than 50% of the time doing research and studies! The same applies to your blog.
When you understand your audience, you will have a clear idea of what type of content you should create which should resonate ideally with them. You would be amazed by the results when you post such content.
But how to do it?
With the social media at your behest, it is the best and most effective way to reach out and ask your audience what they want. You can also spend time studying their interactions to determine what means valuable information to them. You can also test your blog post ideas on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.
Once you know what your target audience loves to read, strengthen your prospects by creating powerful call to action. There are two points to be kept in mind:
- You have done all the research and know what clicks and what matters. So creating call to action doesn’t have to be as difficult.
- Even the highest quality blog posts that generate a lot of traffic and interaction will not do the job if you don’t have a powerful and effective call to action.
You can create the most amazing blog posts. But don’t be surprised if you are unable to get return visitors or social media shares.
Make sure there’s a great call to action for following you up on social media or signing up for your email list. You shouldn’t have any misconceptions that people will read your post and feel great and then search for your Twitter handle to follow you or signup for your list. In this age of intrusive banner ads, people don’t want to look at that sidebar.
The call to action is best highlighted within your posts!
2. Share Your Knowledge
Value-driven blogging is also about sharing your knowledge. Keep in mind when you share what you know, you are contributing something unique – something your audience may not have learnt anywhere else. This can work as a game changer.
Every time someone has something new to learn from your blog, you increase their chances of returning again and again.
There are innovative ways to share your knowledge. Offering a free PDF for download is one such way.
3. Always Be Yourself
One thing common among all the successful bloggers is that they have learned to be themselves. They don’t want to look too professional. They don’t use those big jargons. And they don’t imitate others. Be yourself and feel comfortable in your own skin.
Every individual is unique and so is every blogger. You have something special to contribute and bring it out to the world through your blog and you would be amazed by the results.
Once you start enjoying writing you will notice that you have your own style and peculiarities that make you different. Remember, there’s no single factor or any magical formula to creating a successful blog. It’s all about what you have to offer.
So follow these golden rules of blogging and you would be amazed by how your blogs grow and flourish in a short time.