Blogging Tips for Beginners to Start A Blog & Earn Online
Are you new to blogging? Wish to rank high? If you want to reach more people, you should know how to build and maintain your blog content. Writing articles is a vital process to master. Not to miss a thing, have a look at these hints that have already helped millions of bloggers with their careers. Once you decide which website builder to pick and create your blog, do not forget to use these tips and tricks.
Set Defined Business Objectives for Blogging
It’s interesting that 70% of consumers learn about a company through its blog posts rather than ads. That is why your blogging site needs vision and purpose in addition to quality content. To come up with certain goals that will help to understand your mission, answer the following questions:
- Why are you writing your articles?
- Who is your target audience?
- What is the true value of your content?
- Which tone and voice would best suit your content?
- What are some key metrics that would be useful?
- How should your reader behave by the end of your writing (e.g., sign up, subscribe, download, or buy)?
Put down the answers to these questions in a separate file. They will assist you with further blogging content development.
Enrich Your Content with Visuals Like Images and Videos
Do not forget to insert relevant images, graphs, tables, videos, and other visuals. These elements make the topic sound clearer to your target audience. The best blogging platforms allow adding images, videos, and other visual elements effortlessly (by using the drag-and-drop principle or inserting the link). Many facts and stats prove the power of data visualization. For instance, did you know that 90% of the info transmitted to our brain is visual? Another good point is that the brain processes and perceives visuals 60,000 times faster than they do textual content.
We can talk about it endlessly, but the fact remains: any successful blog requires relevant visual content to become successful. Making your blogging posts alluring is a must; images will bring you more views and leads if you own a commercial website. Bloggers can even notice a 300% rise in conversion rates if they manage to add various visuals. Services like Unsplash and Pixabay are useful for developing and adding royalty-free images.
Longreads vs Short Content Blogging
Short pieces of content are indeed perceived better by the users. However, sometimes, longreads in the shape of how-to guides, manuals, and similar content are required. Writing a 1,000-word article may take up to 200 minutes. Thus, writing a longread may take up to 400 minutes. Many dummies in different fields want to see a full answer to their question (e.g., “How to launch a fashion-oriented startup” or “How to craft soap at home”). When it happens, you should be writing 2000 words on average (or even more). However, usually, 800-1,000 words are enough for an average blog post content.
Do not make them waste more than 1-2 minutes on writing blogs that do not require lengthy answers and 5-10 minutes on typical blog posts. After all, they barely read the full text, highlighting things that matter to them. According to the Chartbeat graph, very few website users wouldn’t bother to keep on scrolling, and, on the average blogging web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words. So, does it make sense to include water and redundancy? The shorter and to-the-point your blogging content, the higher the chances your audience will read it are.
Always Leave Time for Editing and Proofreading after Writing
Proofreading and editing of a 1000-word post take up to two hours on the average. You may do it on your own with the help of special tools like Grammarly or Hemingway. The first one checks grammar, spelling, and punctuation while the second one mostly checks readability, wateriness, and things like that. You may also give the text to your buddy so that he or she can provide feedback. Show blogging content to a professional editor if you are not on a tight budget and can afford to hire an expert. One more tip is to leave your piece of content for 24 hours and have a look at it once again, putting yourself in the shoes of a potential reader.
Find Proofs of Your Words
Do not make a reader fully rely on your opinion. You should prove your words by providing facts and stats from trusted sources that are no older than 3-5 years. They should be up-to-date. Some examples of credible sources include Forbes, the New York Times, various government websites, platforms of educational establishments, etc.
Sometimes, avoiding open-source sites like Wikipedia or Quora is also recommended. You may also share expert opinions and quotes to prove your words. Evidence is the best way to retain your reader, convincing them of your truth. Stress why the particular point matters for your audience.
Blogging Regularly Is a Must
Writing blog posts might be a tiring process, but don’t be lazy! Your blog should welcome readers with fresh content instead of outdated articles. Outdated articles contain irrelevant data, and you should be in trend to sound like a field expert. This will also keep readers interested. Recent studies have shown that companies that published 16+ blog posts per month managed to obtain 3.5 times the traffic compared to those that blogged less than four times per month. For a new blog, 3-4 times per week would be fine. Some startups publish new content no more than twice per week, but that is no longer the clue.
Finish and Start Writing Content with a Bang
An introduction should grab the reader from the first few lines. A conclusion should leave a long-lasting impression. Those are the secrets of successful blogging and writing in general. How should you attract your visitors?
Think about a bang. That is a catchy phrase aimed to grab attention and stress the importance of the discussed topic. The examples are:
- Quote of a famous person
- Statistics or fact
- Rhetorical question
- Joke or anecdote
- Lines of poetry, etc.
Sure thing, it’s unacceptable to start with a joke when you’re writing on a sensitive topic like serious disease or racism. Mind your topic before you decide on the bang for blogging. In an intro, you should also point out the key points that will stick with your audience. In conclusion, provoke your readers to keep on researching the topic. Leave some intrigue, and avoid including new info in the final section.
Mind SEO Optimization for Your Blogging Site
Some bloggers underestimate the vital role of search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines are meant to provide answers and help. You should be aware of what your potential readers might be looking for on the web. Which keywords or phrases would you personally type in Google if you’d search for the same topic? What would you enter to solve the specific problem that your audience may face?
Optimize your blogging articles, both new and outdated so that they rank high. Google often changes its requirements for metadata and other indicators, so check the guidelines regularly. Various SEO tools, such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Analytics, Yoast SEO, and Netpeak Spider might come across as useful solutions. Buy access to at least one of them to keep an eye on your website’s health.
Know Blogging Search Intent
This point is linked to the previous one. Remember that search engines aim to supply users with the most relevant results for their queries. If you don’t have an opportunity to get paid traffic, you can only hope to obtain an organic one. That is why relevance matters. Without knowing search intent, you won’t get into the Google ranking and become famous.
The Holistic Writer has some great content relating to this.