My Blog Doesn’t Work
I get asked the question “Why doesn’t my blog work?” time and time again, and I would love to answer the question, but the problem is that there are a lot of reasons why this is happening, and unless I sit down and make a proper analysis of their blog, I will not be able to help them, so I have decided to write this article about starting and developing a blog for newbies, it will tell you how to create-maintain-and progress your blog from scratch. Before I start showing you how to do this, I want to give new bloggers some advice, if you are going into blogging to make a full time living out of it, most of you will be very disappointed, only a very small percentage of bloggers make a living from their blog, but even then it takes a lot of time, patience and skill, and being able to take a lot of knock-backs.
To be a good blogger you have to have confidence, self-belief, and most important of all passion for what you are writing about.
Choose Your Blogging Platform
There are a lot of blogging platforms out there, but you must choose the biggest and easiest to use, research the platforms using the comparison sites, check for resources, features, and pricing, remember, the cheapest isn’t always the best. You must choose one that you are most comfortable with, you will be using it a lot. Some of the bigger names are WordPress-Weebly-Wix-Blogger-Medium, and all of these offer a free plan, all be it with limited resources, but a great way to start crafting your blogging skills.
Give Your Blog A Name
Naming your blog is extremely important, so your choice of name must in some way reflect what your blog is about, you want it to be eye-catching but at the same time not to obscure where the reader hasn’t got a clue what it relates to. Keep your name short, easy to remember, but imaginative, this will help draw readers to your blog.
Top Level Domain
Using a top-level domain is vital to the success of your blog, it looks professional, and brands will take you more seriously, Using a subdomain which usually comes with a free plan is absolutely fine while you are building your blog, and you can change to a full domain when you feel you are ready to move to the next stage of your blog. When choosing a domain name, just like your blog name, remember to keep it short, easy to remember, and imaginative, and make sure your domain name is in keeping with your niche topic so readers can identify with this.
You Niche Topic
Your niche topic is what it’s all about, this is where your expertise comes in, and this is where your content is created from. What you write in your blog is entirely up to you, but a word of warning, if the topic of your blog is everything and anything, or the topic of your blog is something you don’t know much about, you will struggle to attract viewers to your site.
Your topic should be something you are confident with, it should be well presented and informative. And use back-links to other sites to show your source of information, but please don’t overload your article/post with them, I generally use no more than three back-links depending on the size and subject matter of the article. Remember to post consistently and if necessary, on set days, and keep your posts evergreen, this is important to keep loyal readers coming back, and to attract new readers.
How Your Blog Looks
The look of your blog is important, it has to look attractive, clean, easy navigation to your posts and pages, don’t overload it with images, this doesn’t go down well with search engines, and it can affect your search rankings. Make sure you install features for better user experience, this will also help your readers to keep coming back.
Give some thought to the theme of your site, and be imaginative.
Make sure your menus are clear easy to find, and most importantly easy to use, there is nothing worse than struggling to find a blog post you wanted to read, this will put your readers off. Take your time with this part, get it right, there is no rush.
Your Content
Your content is the heartbeat of any blog, and you need to post quality, well presented, evergreen posts. Make sure you add quality images to enhance your content, make sure you have the right to use those images, and you follow copyright laws, make sure you stick to your niche topic, and don’t stray, as this can cause confusion, and can cause you to lose readers, keep your site strong and true.
Social media is the best way to market your blog, use sites like FACEBOOK, TWITTER, PINTEREST, AND INSTAGRAM, to name just a few. Grow your social networks and share your blog all through them, you must grow your name and reputation to be a high-quality blog.
Overview
I have covered the basics of producing a high-quality blog, and if you follow these steps you will go a long way to getting there.
The only subject I have deliberately left out is your blogs s.e.o this is an essential part of making your blog a success, and will be covered in detail in a following article. I have always said, to have the love of writing, a good imagination, and self-belief you will be halfway there.
Good luck with your blogging journey!
