Many people are interested in having their own blog but aren’t sure where to begin. Putting your work out there into the world for review and critique can be a daunting task for anyone to undertake. That’s why my best advice is just to get started! Start writing and don’t overthink it, just post it.
When people consider how to start a blog, they often think about the platform first. It is common for blog writers to first get caught up in website design, which becomes overly complicated, and then they never even end up adding a post! Instead, focus on creating some quality content first. Then you can create your website and schedule your posts to be published regularly.
Here are my top tips to overcome your fears and start your fabulous blog.
1. Consider Your Niche
The best blogs are on a topic that the author is passionate about. If you love something, then write about it! You will find that there is an audience who loves exactly what you love, and this makes it far easier to connect with your readers.
As soon as you can figure out what value you have to add to others through your writing, this will be a major breakthrough.
2. Plan Your Topics
It’s best to write articles which all fall under the same niche. This way you can get readers coming back time and time again to see your new blog posts because they already know they are interested in what you write about.
If your subject range is too wide, you’ll find that your readers aren’t as loyal because they will be interested in some posts and not in others. For example, if you’re interested in writing about travel, then do it! There are loads of topics that you can write about under this niche. But don’t suddenly start adding posts about how to fix a car because that’s unlikely to interest the same audience.
3. Create a Schedule
If you want to blog regularly, then you need to create a schedule and stick to it. One superb way of doing this is by creating a content calendar where you enter what your upcoming posts will be and how you’re going to promote them.
Otherwise, it’s easy to get caught up in daily life and forget to post altogether. Or you may start feeling like you’re behind and it can seem tremendously difficult to start posting again once you’re out of the flow of it. A content calendar keeps you on track with where you should be at.
4. Research
It’s a fantastic idea to do some research on your target audience to find out what they are interested in. Doing this can assist you in coming up with new topic ideas for posts that you can write about. This will show you the overlap of your audience’s interests and you can decide where to focus your attention to create the most valuable content for them. This includes keyword research, analysis of demographics, and more.
5. Create a Range of Post Types
Blog posts can take a variety of forms apart from the standard article-style posts. You could write a how-to post to inform your readers about how they can do something themselves. For example, this post on how to write a blog!
Other options include infographic posts where you create an infographic to showcase some research you have done. This type of content is very engaging and highly shareable. List posts are also extremely popular with many audiences. These take the form of posts such as ’10 Best Netflix Shows in 2020’ or ’10 Ways to Cook Chicken’. People enjoy reading these because each number in the list tends to be succinct and to the point and there are often a lot of pictures.
Rather than just sticking with one post type, try to regularly add a range of posts. So, if you wrote an article last time then try writing a different type next time.
6. Get Going!
Blog writing is not always easy, but it’s the fantastic audience that makes it worth it. Let your readers be your encouragement to keep going. Remember that everyone has value to add to others, even you. What will yours be?