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Define Your Goals and Audience
Before you set up a blog or write your first post, you need to know where you’re going and how best to get there. Start by defining your goals for your blog. Do you want to make money? Perhaps you wish to establish yourself as an expert in a certain field. Are you going to be promoting a business or service that you offer? Do you intent to express many social or political ideas? Maybe you’re just in it for fun. Your purpose will define the shape and style of your blog.
You don’t want to have too many topics or ideas for a single blog. Stick to a particular niche. For example, if it’s a political blog, you’ll want to leave out the posts about what funny things your kids did over the weekend. A blog about cats will probably not include a recap about your recent hiking trip. Stay on topic if you want to attract and keep readers. Choose your niche, preferably one you have some knowledge about, and stick to that niche.
Readers are the single most important part of a blog. You need to keep their attention. To do this, figure out exactly who main audience will be and write for them and only them. If your audience is teenagers, you should have a blog that appeals to them. This means both the aesthetics of your blog and its content. On the other hand, a blog written for real estate professionals shouldn’t look like it was designed by a teenager. You audience will have certain expectations, and it is your job to meet or exceed these wherever possible.
Choose Your Blogging Platform
There are literally hundreds of different blogging platforms available on the internet today. Two of the most popular are Blogger and Wordpress, but there are many others. Which one you choose will be based upon your own particular needs. Some of them are easier to use than others, and some of them appeal to certain audiences. Go through all your options and choose the platform that you are most comfortable with.
Some platforms are free, others will cost you money. Before you decide to invest in a platform that isn’t free, consider your own needs. If your blog will primarily be a creative outlet, then a free platform should suit you just fine. However, if you want to make serious money from your blog, you might want to consider investing a little money yourself. Typically, free platforms are more difficult to monetize, but this isn’t always the case.
Select the Look of Your Blog
Now that you’ve figured out which platform you’ll be using, it’s time to design your blog. Again, you’ll want to consider your audience. For the most part, you’ll want to avoid busy backgrounds, as they can be hard on the eyes and detract from your content. Also choose a font that contrasts well with your background. Navy may seem like a good color for your font, but against a black background, it disappears. Preview everything before deciding on a final look.
Also make sure that your blog is accessible to readers. Your posts should stand out, not get lost in sidebars and advertising. There’s nothing wrong with advertising and the occasional sidebar, but make sure your posts are the focus of your blog. This will make information easier to find, and your readers will thank you for it.
Once you pick a theme and layout, stick with it. Changing your backgrounds every week may seem like fun, but it becomes hard to create an identity for your blog if you don’t have something consistent. Your readers will also have a hard time recognizing your blog. Try to change things only when absolutely necessary.
Focus on Content
Now it’s time to write something for your blog. Content is the driving force behind any blog, so you’ll need to select it carefully. You’ve already determined your audience and niche, so content should come naturally. To attract loyal readers, you’ll need good quality content that’s posted on a frequent basis. Try to post new content at least once a week. Establish a schedule that your readers can predict.
Give your readers relevant, useful content. Stay on topic, write your content well, and your audience will find you.
Don’t Be a Thief
There’s a lot of great content out there on the internet, and it can be tempting just to copy and paste whatever will work for your blog. Don’t. Write original content, and if you do use an idea or quote, attribute it correctly. Besides being unethical, copying material or images without permission and proper attribution can get you in trouble. Most hosts will shut down a blog if plagiarism is proven, and you could lose all your hard work. Duplicate content also isn’t very interesting, and your readers will eventually just go to the original source. You shouldn’t have to steal anyway, since you are presumably blogging on a topic about which you have some general knowledge.
Establish Yourself as an Authority
Why should anyone read your blog? This is an important question. If you’ve started a blog about training a dog, for example, you have to give your audience a reason to take your advice. This is where the “Contact Me” or “About Me” page comes in handy. You don’t have to detail every moment of your life. Keep it relevant to the blog. In the dog training example, you would want to include any personal information that would help your readers understand why you’re blogging about dog training. Maybe you’ve been training dogs for twenty years, or you might be a certified dog trainer. Make the page friendly and inviting, but relevant.
Use Ads Sparingly
Don’t have a page that’s essentially all ads. It turns readers off. Most readers understand that bloggers make money from ads, so they’ll accept some ads, but don’t go overboard. A few well-placed ads will have more effect than a page of flashing ads that just annoys your readers.
Be Unique
There are thousands upon thousands of blogs out there. You need to try to stand out, at least a little. Write interesting and unique articles, use an authorial voice, and focus on your audience. With a unique blog, you’ll soon find you have more followers and readers than you know what to do with.
Get Your Blog Out There
Once you have some useful information, you need to make sure your blog is found by people who want to read it. While many of your readers may find your blog through search engines such as Bing and Google, there are other ways to promote your blog. Join one or more of the many social networking sites designed for bloggers. Try creating a Facebook Fan Page for your blog to draw in friends and family, and encourage them to invite their friends. Twitter can be used as a way to gain additional fans as well. Also look for blogs on similar topics and follow them, inviting the author of the blog to follow you in turn.
Be Yourself
Your blog is almost an extension of you, so be true to yourself. Inject a little of your own personality into your blog. People read blogs for more than information. They read blogs to connect. Do don’t blog like some emotionless news report. Blog from the heart and you’ll soon find that you gain follows almost without any effort.
There are many other tips for beginning bloggers. You’ll want to master the use of plug-ins, be thoughtful, and encourage conversation, among other things. But the ten tips found here are the essentials for any blogger to consider while crafting their first blog.
