Hello everyone, I hope you all are having a wonderful day! I am sharing with you all some tips I learned throughout my blogging journey. In April I passed my five years of blogging and I looked back at how far I have come with blogging and how this community has grown tremendously! So, I have decided to write a guide for anyone who is interested in starting a blog or would personally like to read this post. I am extremely grateful for this wonderful community and appreciate all the love and support I have received over the past five years! So, THANK YOU!
What is a blog?
Essentially, it is an electronic journal where a team or individual can create posts about music, recommendations, school, tips, recipes, or pretty much anything. Blogs can be used personally or for businesses. Blogs can help connect audiences with similar topics and posts as well as gain a supportive community. Does a blog need a niche? No, not necessarily. If you want your blog to focus on one topic such as food or travel then, you should consider having a niche blog. If you want to branch out to different topics and post ideas, that is perfectly fine to not have a niche blog. Also, writing a blog is a great way for businesses to promote their products and build up community engagement and a following.
Creating Content
Creating content for a blog is quite important. Though sometimes you may run into writer’s block or feel unmotivated to write anything, with research and inspiration, it can be quite easy to bounce back. One way that you can brainstorm ideas is by writing down all the possible topics for your blog. Whether this is related to your niche or not. For instance, if you are running a food blog, you may brainstorm post ideas like “The top places to eat in (insert city),” “5 meals to try this month,” or “Ways to use avocado oil in cooking.” If you do not belong to a niche, some brainstorming post ideas could possibly include how-to’s, lists, guides, tips, recommendations, and reviews of books, movies, tv shows, etc.
If there is one thing that matters most in a blog post, it would be the title. How do you grab your reader’s attention? What makes them want to keep reading instead of scrolling? How do you come up with a title that grabs the reader’s attention? It is best to not overthink the title. One key point to help you come up with engaging titles is to write multiple blog titles for every post. This can help narrow down which title will increase your engagement with your readers and encourage them to keep reading. Another key point to help you improve your blog titles is to keep it short and simple. Try not to have a lengthy title as it does not encourage readers to read your post. Also, try to be creative and original. Not only are creating titles important for your blog but gaining new viewers to read your posts.
There are many ways to gain viewers or traffic to your blog, especially through social media platforms and email marketing. In order to gain traffic to your blog, you must create unique and relevant content. For example, try to stay updated with trends and revolve your blog around those topics. The important thing about blogging is knowing your audience and what they like to engage in. It is also important to add photos and visuals to your blog. This helps your audience engage with your blog and attract more readers. Also, at the end of each blog post, it can be helpful to add other social media platforms that you are on. This is also a great place to thank your readers for engaging with this post. It encourages people to continue to support you and stay committed to your blog. Also, to help attract new viewers to your website, you can construct your own emails and send them to your subscribers. This helps you build a committed community and gain new readers to your site.
Tips For Making a Website
Are you wondering what platform you should use to start your blog? Not to worry, personally, it is really up to you. There are quite a few that are great blogging platforms to start off from. Some include Wix, WordPress, Blogger, SquareSpace, and Tumbler. One of my personal favorites is Wix. Wix is a free blogging website that allows users and readers to both interact and engage with other bloggers. It is very simple to use and offers tutorials and step-by-step instructions on how to create a blog as well as giving pointers and tips along the way. In addition, it is quite easy to create a website especially, if you are given a template to use as a guide. Personally, it is up to you to decide which platform you would like to use, but I highly recommend researching the different platforms before choosing one. To make your website your own, develop a consistent theme and have your own brand colors to make your blog unique. Add your email and contact information so that viewers can easily interact with you. Also, by adding your social media platforms so viewers can stay updated with new content and interactive posts.
Some important pages to add to your blog would be an "about me" page, "FAQ" page, and "contact" page. Adding an “about me” page to your blog is super important! This helps your readers get to know you a little bit better as well as build a stronger connection with your community. Having a "frequently asked questions" page is helpful to your readers who may have trouble navigating the website or need extra assistance. Lastly, a must-have page to have on your blog is a "contact" page! This is extremely helpful and important! This is useful to new readers who are interested in contacting you. You can provide whatever social media platforms you are on as well as your email. You can also have a button on your website to help new subscribers subscribe to your blog by having a mailing list to build your community and your engagement with them.
Resourceful Tools For Starting a Blog
Some resourceful apps to use for your blog include Canva, Pinterest, and Instagram. Canva can be beneficial when creating thumbnails and interactive content for your blog. Canva offers a wide range of different templates to choose from, pictures and decorations to add to your posts, and even animations. The possibilities are endless and it is also very helpful if you are a beginner with graphic design. Pinterest is also another useful app to use with your blog because it helps new people discover your blog and gain traffic. This app allows you to create posts related to your content and have viewers interact with them. Like Pinterest, Instagram is a similar app where users can post pictures and videos to interact with their audience and increase engagement as well as new viewers. It’s also important to focus on obtaining a community first rather than having a large number of followers. Having a community of people rather than a large number of people will help you have loyal and passionate readers.
Planning
Though at the beginning of blogging, it can be difficult to stick with a planning schedule. It’s important to find what uploading schedule works best for you. This can be anything from posting twice a week to once a week to only two times a month. In addition, what is useful with blog planning is having a scheduled time when you are posting. Not only does this relieve some stress on your part, but it also helps your community become excited about new posts on the way! Some things to be aware of with planning, it would be a good idea to keep a theme each month with your blog posts as well as a color palette to work with. This helps the viewers not be overwhelmed by the contrast of colors and prepare the readers for a series of blog posts to look forward to. When it comes to thumbnail creating, try to stick to colors and patterns related to your theme. Make them simple and pleasing but try not to overdo them. If it helps, you can ask your friends or family about your thumbnail idea and see whether or not they would click on a post like this. Overall, it should be something that is fun, and you enjoy doing, it shouldn’t matter what other people think.
Thank you all very much for reading this blog post! Hopefully, this help new bloggers or anyone that is interested in starting a blog. I have provided tips and tricks that have worked for me and hopefully, they will work for you as well. Overall, blogging should be enjoyable, and wanting to build a community of passionate readers. Thank you all very much for all the love and support that I have received over the past five years, I am extremely grateful for starting this blogging journey!
I have more posts planned for this month and I cannot wait to share them with you all! If you are interested in interactive content or want to stay updated when new posts are coming, you can follow me on both Instagram and Pinterest @helpfulinspiringblog. If you need to contact me, please email me at: helpfulinspiringblog@gmail.com. I will see you all in the next post!
-Sonia
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