What is better than getting paid to write about what you love? Not much. That is why many people turn to blogging hoping to establish a career. However, many get confused on where to begin and end up quitting before they ever really get started. Before you dive in and start your blog you need to make sure that you do these 5 things first.
Pick your Niche
Don’t start a blog until you are sure you can start it with purpose. You will just end up writing about random topics with no real focus. If you want to be a successful blogger you need to pick a niche to write about and figure out what you can offer your audience that isn’t already being served to them. Be authentic in your writing and work on quality of your content over the quantity of your blog posts. No matter who your audience is they will always prefer valuable high-quality content over articles that have been thrown together at random.
Pick your Name and Logo
One of the most important steps in developing your blog is choosing a name. Many people make the mistake of rushing into this in order to start posting content immediately. Months or years down the line they realize it’s not the right name for their blog. To avoid making this mistake you need to take tie and really consider your blog name right from the start. Keep it short and catchy but try to keep from a name that is too narrow. It may really limit the kind of content you can post.
So, you have a name and a niche. It’s time to decide on a logo. Consider outsourcing this work to a professional designer. There are many freelancers on fiverr who can create a quality logo for you for as little as $5. A logo is significant for your brand or your voice. A good logo will help you stand out from the rest. They also help with recognition and authority.
Learn SEO
Search engine optimization or SEO is crucial to creating content that ranks on Google. Using SEO effectively will ensure that your blog or article is found when people type in keywords or phrases into the Google search engine. There are a variety of ways you can use and utilize search engine optimization to help your posts get more traffic from online search engines. SEO techniques are changing all the time so it is important for you to always be researching and looking up tips that will help you create content that will achieve the best search engine results.
Decide on a Blogging Platform
Picking a blogging platform will be one of the most difficult decisions you will make when starting a blog. Platforms like WordPress.com are user friendly and easy to get started with. Hosting your site with WordPress has many benefits such as domain hosting and a large variety of themes to pick from. Consider pairing your platform with a website hosting company such as Bluehost. This will give you the luxury of a self-hosted WordPress blog.
Write Posts
Before you launch your blog you should have a decent collection of blogs written up and ready to publish. You want to make sure that there will be enough content on your site for your audience to scroll through and engage with. You should have 3 – 5 posts already published that cover a range of topics in you blogs niche. Ideally, you’ll want another 5 – 10 posts ready to publish in drafts. This will ensure that you have content to post if you get too busy or backed up.
