It can be amazing and intimidating to start a blog for the first time.
I can’t describe the feeling of thinking people are actually going to read and share something I wrote. It’s unlike any other feeling.
But it’s not all fun and games. Starting a blog is hard work, and there are a lot of potential problems along the way. Especially if you’re new to this.
There are many mistakes one can make when starting a blog, so we created a tutorial full of things we wish we knew before our first blogs. By doing this, you can avoid making these same mistakes!
How to start a blog the right way
This post is a collaborative effort from three different bloggers who are sharing their advice on how to start a successful blog that makes money.
Get comfortable and grab a coffee because we’re about to review everything we’ve learned in the past 8+ years.
1. Use SEO to drive tens of thousands of visitors every month
The goal of SEO is to improve your ranking on search engines like Google. This is done by optimizing your content to rank for certain keywords.
SEO is a term that describes a number of activities that can be done to make a website more visible in search engine results pages (SERPs). These activities include keyword research, link building, and optimizing website content.
But more on that later in this guide. It works like this:
You can use a tool like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to find out how many people are searching for a particular keyword and how difficult it is to rank for that keyword.
2. Build links to boost your rankings
I believe that link building is just as important as SEO because without links, your website will not rank as high. Backlinks are one of the strongest indicators that Google uses to rank a site.
It’s a lot of work, but it’s not difficult or complicated work. It’s just a matter of networking and building strong relationships with people who can provide you with links.
Here’s a quick and dirty overview to link building:
To get people to link to your content, it needs to be high quality. This is true whether you’re just starting a blog or have been blogging for awhile.
Brian Dean recommends creating content for the people you want links from rather than focusing on keywords first.
If you have written quality content, reach out to anyone you have linked to in your article. These people are more likely to share and link to your content since they have a stake in it.
The more flattering you make someone look, the more likely it is that they will link to you.
3. Go for quality over quantity (underrated by most people learning how to start a blog for free)
This is something that I have learned from studying SEO and from creating blogs in general: it is always better to have fewer, high-quality posts than to have lots of low-quality posts.
You only need to post once a month to be successful. This gives you more time to focus on promoting your content.
In the past, Google would give some preference to sites with new content.
When sites started publishing a large number of low-quality articles, Google took action to prevent this by banning those sites. As a result, those sites no longer exist.
Would you rather have ten so-so blog posts, or two great ones? I know I’d rather have the two great ones. Especially because, as those high-quality articles gather backlinks, they have more authority and increase the value of internal links.
4. Use internal linking to help Google (and people) navigate your site
Lucy says that when she started her blog, she made sure to include a lot of internal links. This helped her readers to navigate her site easily and also boosted her search engine rankings. Internal links are very important for people who are just starting a blog. These links are from one page of the blog to another page on the same site. This is different from external linking, which is when a page on the blog links to a page on someone else’s site.
Internal linking is important for helping your readers navigate your blog, as well as for SEO purposes. By linking to old content, you can introduce new readers to your most popular and relevant posts.
If you want your other pages to rank highly, it helps to have a blog post that is popular and well-linked.
5. Guest blog for more traffic, better SEO, and brand awareness
If you want to get more backlinks and traffic to your site, guest blogging is a strategy you can use. You can get traffic from other blogs by writing posts for them, which is like borrowing their traffic.
You’ve probably seen or heard of this before. It works like this:
You need to find a blog that you would like to write for. This can be done by looking for people who are industry leaders in your niche or a related niche.
I am a content marketer and I read blogs about content marketing such as Content Marketing Institute. They have over 100,000 email subscribers and a domain authority of 85.
Domain authority is a search engine ranking score that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). A domain authority score ranges from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank. Domain authority is based on factors such as age, linking root domains, and the number of total links. A site’s domain authority score can be improved by increasing the quantity and quality of inbound links, as well as reducing the number of outbound links
I wanted to write a post on the Copyblogger blog to increase my brand awareness. It would be like a badge of honor, and it would help me land clients.
I talked to people in my network to see if anyone knew an editor at the company. Someone did, and they put me in touch with them.
6. Use social media to drive traffic
This is because social media increases the visibility of your blog, and a blog gives you something to share on social media. Social media and blogging go together like two peas in a pod. One cannot really exist without the other. This is because social media increases the visibility of your blog, and a blog gives you something to share on social media.
There’s nothing more frustrating than spending four hours writing a blog post, only to see zero engagement. No comments, no shares, and your one like is from grandma.
Most people use social media incorrectly by thinking of it as a way to simply share their blog posts. Social media is more than an RSS feed.
How can social media be used effectively?
One way to be successful in blogging is to network and be social. You will start to notice that many aspects of blogging depend on networking.
7. Use your audience to choose topics
If you pick topics at random, it’s like playing the lottery. You might get lucky and your readers might like it, or you might not.
You’re guaranteed to win if you let your audience tell you what they want to hear about.
Here are a few ways you can find out:
- Reach out to them on social media or via email and just ask!
- Send out a survey to your email list, or by using Qualaroo.
- Read the comments people left on your blog or on competitor’s blogs.
- Go to forums in your niche and see what people are asking about.
- Use Buzzsumo to find common questions around your topic:
It’s beneficial to write articles that answer common questions because you can go to the forum where the question was asked and link back to your article. It’s important to add more insight than just a link, or you risk getting banned from most places.
You can easily ask your audience for help, even if you don’t have one yet.
8 Helpful Blogging Resources to Improve Your New Blog
The best way to learn the ropes is by doing it yourself. One of the best ways to learn how to blog is to start your own blog. You can find plenty of resources from bloggers who are serious about helping others start blogging, if you know where to look.
You will need to become familiar with some common resources that can help you create and improve your content if you want to blog effectively and productively.
1. Online Communities
These groups of individuals come in different forms, such as forums, groups, networks, clubs, hubs, organizations, unions, message boards, social networking platforms, etc. They are all connected by their similar interests and goals, and they interact with each other across political boundaries and geographies.
We meet on a website instead of in person. We post messages to each other instead of talking face-to-face. We don’t have to worry about the time and place to meet because online communities are always available.
2. Other Bloggers
The experienced bloggers were once in your shoes. Beginning bloggers may feel intimidated by their more successful or experienced counterparts in the blogging world. However, other bloggers are actually your most valuable “resources.” You may feel nervous or unwilling to connect with them at first, but this is perfectly normal.
This is what separates beginners from experienced bloggers.
More experienced bloggers are more likely to offer help when you reach out to them. You can find guides and other resources written by these bloggers for newbies and returning bloggers on their blogs. These bloggers are resourceful and have the technical knowledge to help you get started.
The best way to show appreciation to those who help promote your content is to offer them something in return. Whether they link to your post, share it across social media, or let you use their images, offer to do something for them in return. This will help build strong relationships and show that you are grateful for their help.
3. Academics
Sensible universities and college departments will provide “academic resources for blogging.” This includes traditional libraries as well as other resources. Blogging can be a huge challenge for faculty members, and universities should provide resources to help them.
As a former academic, I am not happy with how disinterested professors are in “speaking up in public.” It is important for academics to maintain their own blogs so they can show us how to think in the open.
There are many academic resources available for blogging, such as academic blogs, online courses offered by universities, and college guides to writing online and for the web. You can also find research studies on the impact of academic blogging, articles about student publishing from universities, academic writing blogs, digital storytelling initiatives, and studies on the academic contributions of blogging.
4. Online Hosting
Your online hosting services can be a valuable resource for technical knowledge about blogging, about running a small business, and, of course, about SEO. Most hosting services have a blog where they share their knowledge base articles and all the how-tos of your blogging business. And then finally, check out their affiliate programs. An affiliate program is one way you can earn money with your blog while helping other bloggers.
5. Blogging Platforms
Blogging platforms are a great source of information on how to get more involved with blogging. An experienced blogger would usually create their own training materials and online courses to help other bloggers with their blogging journey. Knowing this, many blogging platforms would often organize events to facilitate discussions. During these events, participants would learn from each other on how to improve their blogging skills. Some blogging platforms also offer blogging certification to help bloggers further validate their blogging skills.
WordPress.com and WordPress.org both offer ways for people to get involved and learn more about WordPress. Both platforms offer support workshops, TV channels, training teams, marketing teams, and design teams. You can also attend a Wordcamp event to learn more about WordPress.
6. Adwords (Now Ads)
This popular advertising tool is useful for bloggers to popularize their sites. Bloggers can use the keyword planning tool inside Ads to find new keywords and get search volume and forecasts.
The Keyword Planner is designed to help you research keywords to use in your articles, as well as find supporting keywords that are relevant to your blog topics. The planner provides useful statistics, such as search volume, to help you determine which keywords to use. Additionally, the planner includes forecasts that will give you an idea of how your list of keywords is likely to perform.
7. Analytics
Everything you do as a blogger is marketing, including using Google as a tool.
Analytics is a tool that can help you better understand your customers so that you can improve your website and reach your target audience. With analytics, you can find out how many visitors you have, what their demographics are, where they’re coming from, what their interests are, and more.
8. Webmaster Tools
The Webmaster tool and Console are important tools for website owners. It helps you be notified of issues with your website, improve your code, check your website’s health, and verify your authorship on the internet. In short, it helps you make sure that your website is found on the internet and helps you with possible problems such as a hack.
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