Starting a Blog in 2021: What You Need to Know
Blogging can be quite fun and lucrative if done correctly. While some people blog for fun, others have taken it as a career. Some people blog full-time while others blog part-time. All these are ways on how to make an extra buck out of blogging. But what is blogging? You might ask. In layman’s terms, blogging can be described as a web-based journey where bloggers share their thoughts on various issues or topics, be it financial, family, law, or entertainment.
Interestingly, there are so many people who’ve made blogging their main source of income and are enjoying the fruits of their labor this way. All it takes is time to find relatable topics you can engage your audience with and you are good to go. But there’s more to blogging than meets the eye. These might have to do with the logistics that come with it as well as the other nitty gritties that will be discussed below. Here’s what you need to know if you are looking to start blogging in 2021.
Learn SEO
Before you even start your blog, you should have the basic knowledge of how SEO (search engine optimization) will affect your blog site. Not so many bloggers realize this but SEO is the bread and butter of most if not all blogs. This is among the ways you can improve and boost your online presence without much of a sweat.
Today, and as it turns out, content is still king! There are so many people who are after quality content and if you have not invested in the right SEO practices for your blog, then you might as well quit. Sadaf, the blog owner at https://massilah.com, provides good blogging tips and insights as well as the best SEO practices to utilize if you are to generate more traffic from the known search engines. Among such practices include:
- Ensure that your URLs are specific, meaningful, and relevant
- Include post titles that are eye-catching and compelling
- Keyword placement is also a major area of concern as those placed within the first paragraphs help to rank your posts higher on search engines
- Ensure that your content is top-notch stuff
- When using images, be sure that the images are optimized for search engines
- Do not compromise on your blog’s loading speeds
Identify Your Niche
To start a blog, you need to identify a niche, which means coming up with relative topics that you’ll be good at. Your blog posts should have a theme and to find one, you need to address issues that affect you or topics that your audience can relate with. Think of it as a marketing platform. Most bloggers will concentrate their posts on their passions, talents, or hobbies. However, it would be best if you started with an area you are passionate about because come to think about it, you can not go wrong with following your dreams. This helps to ensure consistency and originality.
When it comes to choosing your niche, choose your niche based on the audience revenue potential. Your niche should enable you to solve most of the problems your audience encounters. The challenges you solve also need to be too dire that your audience can be willing to spend some money and time on.
Most people have gone into affiliate marketing as a result of blogging. Affiliate marketers will recommend consumers to businesses, products, and services. This means that at the end of the day, they’ll be making commissions on every sale made through them. You could also maximize your professional leverage by having a deeper understanding of your clients’ needs. By this, it means researching the most competitive keywords.
Write Down The Goals Of Your Blog
Starting a new blog requires a lot of discipline and consistency. Once you’ve identified your niche, you need to keep track of everything including your motivations, content, goals, and ideas. Set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely goals. Build the profile of your blog through unique value propositions. Write down your blog’s headline and subheadings. Create your blog’s elevator pitch on how you would market your blog to an audience in a few seconds. Consider your clients’ needs and how you are going to categorize your blog.
Come Up With A Domain Name
You’ll, of course, want to be associated with your blog and this is mainly the identifying factor when creating a blog. A blog extension name will be key to your audience identifying with your content. This will be your brand and it’s of utmost importance that you invest heavily in it to ensure that it will resonate in the minds of your audience for time to come. Your domain name should be catchy, short to the point, must include specific keywords, and should be easy to type.
Create A Budget
There will be costs to be met when starting a blog. You’ll most definitely need hosting services from the best web hosting companies if you are to get the most out of your blogging. Needless to mention is the fact that it costs to create an effective and efficient domain name. Other costs to factor in include:
- Hardware costs
- Marketing tools
- Content creation
- Creating a website
- Plugin development
- Managing your blogging team
Launching Your First Blog Post
It will cost you time and money to see your first blog post go online. It will cost you even more if you are to see your blog posts attract more traffic. But with advancements in technology and the various paid blogging services, this shouldn’t take time. As a newbie, you might consider utilizing the WordPress blog option. But then again, it would still be meaningless if you’ll not have invested the time to create a great domain name, marketing yourself, or creating quality content.
You might, while at it, consider enlisting a blogging company to help provide you with the services you need in consistently supplying your audience with quality content, in social engagement, and in meeting your objectives and goals.
To start a blog, you need to have a profitable niche where you can use your passion, professional experience, and skills to fill. Having measurable goals is key to helping you achieve the focus of your blog. The audience, marketability, and knowledge should guide your choice of a blog.
