As someone who has been blogging for many years, new bloggers often ask me what is In fact important when you are starting out. Sure. You want to share your story with the world. You want a profitable and sustainable blog. But how do you get there?
Today, I wanted to share some new tips from bloggers to help you get started on the right foot. Building your blog on a firm foundation can guarantee success for years to come.
1. What is your goal?
There is no single path to success, and every blogger’s initial vision of what they want to create is different. Some people just want a little online journal where they can share their thoughts and daily happenings with family and friends. Some people start a blog with the dream of one day being a famous author or TV celebrity. Some people might care less about fame and notoriety and just blog as a means to monetize their knowledge and expertise.
Your goal may change over time, but you must determine what it is that you want right now. Everything you do in the future stems from that.
2. What is your plan?
One thing is for sure, regardless of your end goal, you must establish an attraction plan. If you wanted to keep your thoughts and words private after all, you’d just be writing things down in a paper journal or a private document online. Bloggers want to get their message across. You need to attract people to your blog for that to happen. That requires a plan.
Some of your first questions to answer will be:
How often will you post?
You need to create great content on a regular basis to attract and keep readers. There is no magic number here. But consistency is the key.
How often can you realistically produce a great new blog post? Once a week? Twice a week? Twice a month? What is sustainable?
How will you promote?
Blog posting should be followed by promotion. You can’t wait for people to find your blog on their own. Period. It just won’t happen. You have to spread the word. I know it’s scary. But it is so essential to make marketing a priority.
Promoting your latest content is not difficult. Just make yourself a checklist and check those boxes.
- Send it to your email list
- Share it in the social media
- See if there are any questions on Quora or Facebook groups that your new post answers.
- Optimize your post for search
- Share it on your Facebook profile
3. Take your social media profiles
Even if you’re not ready to conquer them all, and you shouldn’t get overwhelmed trying to do everything at once, you should still go ahead and secure your blog handles on the most popular platforms; Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Even if they’re inactive for now, at least you’ll have a brand identity later.
I would recommend spending some time on Pinterest. It doesn’t take a lot of time, but it can yield great rewards. Create a Pinterest-friendly image for your posts and pin it. Facebook is also a popular platform among bloggers. Set up a Page and start sharing your new posts on it.
4. Define your a follower
It’s really hard to write blog posts for every single person on the planet. Not every piece of advice or story you tell will be relevant to everyone. Trying to keep things smooth, pervasive, and “safe” is a recipe for disaster. You may never connect with anyone.
Instead, define the person you want to talk to when you write. How old is she? How is her life? Why is it happening? What does she need from you?
This is your new best friend. Every time you sit down to write, he talks to this one person. Tell her why her story is important to her. Answer her questions. Trust me. This is going to make your job a lot easier.
Some people who visit your blog may not relate to your story. Alright! Those who do will become your biggest fans. Quality over quantity.
5. Make some friends
There are so many Facebook groups for bloggers. Find some relevant, active, spam-free groups to join. In many of these Groups, you may be given the opportunity to share new posts from time to time. In these threads, you can place your latest link in exchange for promoting another blogger’s latest post. This is a great way to make friends while expanding your reach. Be generous, not jealous.
6. Secure subscribers
As you start getting traffic, make sure those people have a way to follow you long-term, and that you’re inviting them to follow you. An email newsletter is a great way to do that. AWeber is an affordable newsletter service and where I started. (I still use AWeber for one of my blogs to this day.)
You can also include links on your site to follow you on social media. Just remember, social media can be fickle. Those platforms come and go and fall in and out of love with bloggers on a regular basis. Your email list is yours.
7. Create Pillar Content
When you start blogging, you may be in a rush to publish a lot of posts. Instead of focusing on creating long, detailed, and incredibly helpful posts, also known as pillar posts, you write a lot of piecemeal posts thinking it makes you look like you’ve been around for a while.
From a reader’s point of view, I would much prefer to have one meaty post that answers all my questions rather than a bunch of little posts that I may or may not find or fully read. Quality over quantity. Very few people are going to read more than one or two posts on your blog at a time. Make it a memorable experience if you want them to come back.
8. Get a grip on images
We live in an image-driven society. Why do you think Pinterest and Instagram are so popular? We love those pretty photos. We click on those pretty pictures.
Therefore, it is so important to make images a priority. In fact, Pinterest is a great traffic generator for many bloggers. And it requires very little maintenance or time. So, optimize it!
I personally use canvas for creating my blog post images. They have many social media templates available that are free to use. They also offer excellent design tutorials.
When it comes to getting my images I use a few sites:
Preview their current collections to see if they match your niche and are the style you’re looking for.
9. Install Google Analytics
Once you start getting traffic, you’ll want to make sure it’s headed in the right direction. You’ll also want to know where that traffic is coming from and what content is resonating with people. Google Analytics is the standard for this. Google offers excellent free learning for beginners.
Custom dashboards can also help you streamline your information. If you have traffic coming from Pinterest, I really like this free one from Kristie Hill.
10. Focus on long-term success, not flash in the Pan
Blogging success doesn’t happen overnight. And just as success doesn’t come overnight, you don’t want it to disappear overnight either. Focus your time and energy on creating a solid, sustainable foundation that can support your long-term goals.
