Tips for beginner bloggers
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We saw a 400% growth in website traffic in one month.
I received emails and phone calls where potential clients literally said:
40 of My Best Blogging Tips For Beginners
1. Set defined goals for your business blogging.
2. Build a blog component into your current website.
3. Invest in your blog user experience & design.
Or if you are not able to hire someone to help design your website, consider a high-quality WordPress theme from Squarespace. They host the website, and charge a monthly subscription fee. Just remember that later on may give you frustration if you want to migrate to WordPress as a more robust platform.
The Harvest blog user experience is simple, clean, and branded well. Content is the focus, but they also offer clear call-to-action in the global navigation and sidebar (Sign Up and Try It Free).
4. Install Google Analytics to measure results.
5. Your blog posts should not be fluff.
6. Make a list of topics you feel confident writing about.
If you can break topics up into high-level categories, even better. Set those categories up as your blog navigation, so that your readers can explore specific areas of content if they choose to.
7. Alleviate blog writer’s block by exploring these areas:
8. Use a blog topic generator tool.
9. Develop and use an editorial calendar for blogging.
10. Find the right keyword phrase for your blog post.
In the case of this article, we could have targeted a more general phrase “blogging tips“. But, the competition on that search from more established sources was likely insurmountable for a new blog like ours.
11. Create blog posts that are 1,500 words or more.
12. Write “how-to” blog posts, with ordered steps.
13. Write blog posts focused on case studies.
14. Write blog posts with numbered tips or guidelines.
15. Write blog posts that are long lists.
16. Deep dive into your blog content, to create more blog content.
17. Break up blog content to increase readability.
18. Emphasize key points in a blockquote or italics/ bold.
19. Always add images that support your story.
20. Use images and graphics that you have rights to, or are royalty-free.
21. Create a unique image for your social media posts.
22. End your blog post with a conclusion and a question.
23. Don’t be boring with your headline, but keep it simple.
24. Write your blog post headline, then analyze it!
25. Get Yoast installed, if your site uses a WordPress blog.
26. Add social sharing buttons to your blog posts.
27. Allow readers to tweet content within a blog post.
28. Post one to two blog articles a week.
29. Check spelling and grammar on your blog posts.
Publishing a quality post in terms of the subject matter and content is extremely important, but how does it look if it is riddled with spelling mistakes? Or worse, bad grammar (shudder)!
30. Proofread and edit your blog post.
When I finish writing a post, I step away for at least 24 hours, and come back to it. The break gives me a fresh look, and the ability to detect errors I may not have seen while in the thick of it.
31. Fact check your blog post to make sure all statements are true.
32. Post your blog on Monday or Thursday mornings.
33. Email your subscriber list with the latest blog post.
34. Email your blog post to the people that are mentioned.
It’s always nice to hear that a quote, or original content has been included somewhere else on the web. Send a message or tweet to people that contributed to making your post a solid piece of work.
Find a niche
When choosing a creative topic to blog about, try and find a niche. Make your blog about something very specific and you'll please both the search engines and your readers. Try not to be too general and really focus on one specialist topic and stick to it. Find your own niche and go for it – just remember to stay on topic.
Write about something you love, otherwise you'll show no passion in your writing. And if there's no passion, your content will suffer, so find a topic you are comfortable with and only write about that. For example, if you're a museum curator, talk about the industry, emerging trends and other museums or exhibitions you love. And if you're a theatre director, you could write about industry folk you admire or share your working day with your followers.
Offer value
It goes without saying but if you don't provide something the public wants, your creative blog will never be a success. Give people what they're after and offer real value to their web browsing experience. What do I mean by this? Well, value is demonstrated in the content you publish. If your content isn't valuable people won't read it or return to read more. Really think about what you're putting out there and give the people what they want.
You won't get anywhere if you just launch a blog and hope that people will come without any marketing effort. You have to actively market your blog and you can do that through a variety of ways. You can start chatting with other bloggers by leaving valuable comments on other people's blog posts – this will help draw people back to your own site. Or you can make use of the search engines and write about topics that are popular in the searches, like this very feature. Or you could even offer to contribute to influential e-zines or blogs to help raise your profile. Whatever you choose to do, just get out there and market yourself like mad. There's really no excuse not to.
4 Blogging Resources
How do you make money blogging? How much do bloggers make? Can I make money blogging? Are blogs still profitable in 2022?
- Creations. By building an audience who finds value in our message, we’ve been able to offer our three books and our documentary, Minimalism, to an audience who is willing to support our creative work. Consequently, all three books have been bestsellers and are now translated into more than a dozen languages; and thanks to Netflix, our documentary is available in 190 countries. (For more information about our book-publishing process, read this blog post series: How to Publish an Indie Book.)
- Audience Contributions. Since we refuse to clutter our blog or popular podcast with ads, we depend on audience support to fund production of our podcast. With more than 5,000 supporters on Patreon and many others via PayPal, The Minimalists Podcast is fully funded with audience support, which means we’re able to pay for our podcast producer, filmmaker, and studio space without advertisements on our platforms.
- Speaking. As we built our audience, many organizations, universities, and conferences began contacting us about speaking at their events. At first, we starting speaking for free just to build a name for ourselves. Then, we started charging a few hundred dollars per event. Now, we’re able to charge significantly more money because the demand for our talks is high.So far, The Minimalists have spoken at Harvard, Apple, Google, Allstate, SAP, SXSW, TEDx, and many other organizations. We speak about a wide array of topics, from simple living and “simple work,” to health, relationships, writing, publishing, social media, personal growth, and contribution—and it all started because we started this blog. (Anyone who is interested in hiring us to speak can visit our speaking page for details.)
- Tours. Over the past eight years, The Minimalists, have embarked on eight speaking tours, including 2017’s 50-city “Less Is Now” theater tour, which attracted an average of more than 1,000 people a night, with considerably larger audiences in bigger cities. Our 2014 “Everything That Remains” bookstore tour spanned 119 cities in eight countries and attracted 75,000 attendees.
- Writing Classes. I get countless questions about writing, so I’ve been able to transfer that skillset to help hundreds of students improve their writing over the years. I teach a four-week online writing class designed to improve the writing of people at any skill level—beginner, intermediate, or professional.
- Amazon Links. If The Minimalists recommend a product like this photo scanner, and then a reader purchases that product, we receive a small commission for that sale at no additional cost to our audience. We’re careful about what we recommend, however, because, as minimalists, we want you to consume less and to consume intentionally.
- Affiliate Sales. When we recommend services such as Bluehost and Constant Contact, we receive a referral fee. Once again, though, that’s obviously not why we recommend these services. Virtually every hosting company has an affiliate program, so we think it’s best to recommend the companies we use.
Through these various means, Ryan and I are able to earn a full-time income through blogging. But it’s worth noting that making money from your blog is not the best place to start.
While there’s nothing wrong with making money—which you can do through affiliate links, advertisements, and your own products and services—the best reason to start blogging is because you have something to express.
If you make money along the way, that’s great. In fact, if you help people solve their problems, you’re all but guaranteed to make money from your blog—eventually. Let’s just remember there are at least four resources that are more important than money: skills, time, energy, and attention.
That said, let’s not kid ourselves by acting as if making money is irrelevant—it’s not. Making money from our blog is simply not the primary driver for our creativity or why we became bloggers. Although people often think of money as the ultimate resource, it is the least important of the five mentioned above.
Money won’t necessarily improve your life, but it will amplify your existing behaviors. If you have bad habits, then more money will make your life considerably worse. And if you’re already a generous person, then more money can help you be more loving, caring, and considerate.
What does blog stand for? What does blog mean?
According to Wikipedia, a blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of “discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts).” The term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger on December 17, 1997. The short form, “blog,” was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog in 1999.
Sources:
https://freshsparks.com/blogging-tips-and-tricks-for-beginners/
https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2011/nov/17/top-tips-successful-blog
https://www.theminimalists.com/blog/