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If you have been thinking about starting a blog but you still haven’t made the leap then I am here to share some of my top tips for starting your blog. From choosing your blog niche to getting traffic to your blog, let’s get stuck in.
Why start a blog?
Blogging is not only a fantastic creative outlet, but it can also enhance your career prospects or generate you some extra income.
I am lucky enough to have been blogging full time for 4 years now, allowing me to generate a six-figure turnover and live the life you want.
Even if you aren’t looking to replace your full time job with a blog, and you want to start for fun or as a new side hustle, there is still plenty of space in the blogosphere to get started.
Choosing your niche
My top tip when it comes to choosing your blogging niche is to choose something that you are very passionate about.
If I were to meet you in a pub for a meal, what is something that would come up in conversation because you talk to everyone about it?
For me that was ways to make money and save money, but you might want to consider a luxury lifestyle blog, a parenting blog, a photography blog or anything else entirely.
Choosing a niche that you are passionate about will give you the motivation to work on your blog to build it into a success.
Choosing your domain name
Many bloggers are put off by having to choose their domain name and it can paralyse them from making a start.
Let me tell you – my first blog was called From Aldi To Harrods – that’s not one but two trademarked names, and I am still here telling my story and educating others.
You could choose to use your name, or part of your name in the blog title. For example, Emma’s Thoughts, or The Drew Household. You could choose a name that has to do with something you love, for example The Cat House or Fairy Garden.
There are so many names to choose from!
You can also change it at a later date if you really hate it, or you need to rebrand. It takes time but it isn’t impossible to do. I have rebranded by blog to get away from the two trademarked names and it worked well for me.
Driving traffic to your blog
Writing your blog posts and creating photos and other images is a great creative outlet, but how do you actually get people to your blog to read your blog posts?
There are lots of ways to drive traffic to your blog, and you can focus on one area to master it, or try a few different approaches.
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
This is where you optimise your posts for people using Google or other search engines to find your blog posts. For example instead of writing ‘My day out at XYZ’ you might write ‘XYZ review’. More people are likely to be searching the internet for a review.
Guest posting
Guest posting is where you write a blog post for another blogger to host on their own blog. If you are writing about a topic that you have already written about in the past on your own blog, then you will need to make sure the content is different and not copied word for word.
You can choose to swap guest posts, where you write something for a blogger and they write some content for you. Or you can offer to guest post on other blogs without publishing a guest post on your blog. It is really flexible.
Social media accounts
Creating social media accounts is a great way to not only get traffic to your blog, but also to engage with other bloggers in the community and your readers. Be sure to share all of your latest blog posts on your social media accounts.
Creating your social media accounts
There are plenty of social media accounts to choose from, and each platform does a different thing:
- Twitter – short updates limited to 240 characters, which can include links, images and video. Great for sharing links and getting traffic to your blog.
- Instagram – showcases your photos and behind the scenes using your stories, however it doesn’t convert well to clicks to your blog.
- Pinterest – a visual based search engine that allows you to showcase your blog posts. Great for driving traffic to your blog.
- Facebook Page – allows your fans to follow you, however it is hard to get engagement. The most your posts are engaged with, the more people Facebook share the post with.
How to build your domain authority
Your Domain Authority (or DA) is a score out of 100, where the higher you are the ‘better’ your blog is.
Whilst this is a metric created by Moz, it is one of the most important metrics you will need when it comes to getting blogger opportunities. Lots of agencies pay rates depend on your domain authority, so it is important to spend some time building it up.
To build up your domain authority you need to get links from other blogs and websites. You can do this via:
- Guest posting (mentioned above)
- Link swapping
- Interviews
- Getting media attention
- Taking part in linkies
- Commenting on other blogs
A final thought
Remember that blogging success doesn’t come overnight. I worked on my blog in the mornings before work and in the evenings when my husband worked a night shift. It was hard going but I am reaping the rewards now. I earn a passive income from my blog and get to employ my husband, which is the dream life for us.
My favourite phrase is ‘progress not perfection’ – just do something and stop aiming for perfection when it comes to your blog. Mine certainly isn’t perfect and yet it still functions as a fantastic resource for others looking to make extra money, and not only gives me and my husband an income, but also a creative outlet.
