Blogging: A Guide for Beginners in 2023
Blogging is one of the most fun and versatile skills you can master. One of the advantages of blogging is the almost complete absence of a financial ceiling. However, blogging is not a short-term venture. You can’t get rich overnight.
If you have an idea that you are genuinely interested in, a proven strategy, and the patience and discipline to blog daily, over time you will be able to create a valuable asset that will bring you income for many years to come.
All about blogging for beginners
The first thing you need to decide is the purpose of your blog. What type of blog do you want to run and who will it be for? Will it be a personal blog on a specific topic, or do you want to offer blogging as a service?
The blogging service is in high demand. After all, blogs are a huge part of content marketing.
But if you want to start your own blog, then first decide how you will monetize it:
- Lead generation for your writing business. To make money as a freelance writer, you can use your blog to generate leads.
When you write about topics that your ideal prospects are interested in, you are demonstrating the experience and expertise that will help them with their needs. - Passive income. You can also blog separately from your writing business. In fact, you don’t even have to be a freelance writer.
Anyone can start blogging on a topic that interests them. This will give you the opportunity to attract an audience. And once you’ve done that, you’ll have plenty of ways to monetize your blog (which we’ll come back to).
Blogging Guide for Beginners: 6 Easy Steps
To quickly launch your blog and start making money as early as possible, you can reduce the process to a few simple steps.
Step 1. Decide on an idea
The first thing you need to decide is what you will write about. Just think about your hobbies and interests. Find something you enjoy, something you’re interested in diving into, and something you’d like to write about every day. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to maintain motivation and discipline.
A beginner blogger should also consider the following:
- Make sure there are those who share your passion. If you plan to make money from your blog, you need to build an audience and grow loyal readers.
- Don’t choose a topic that is too broad. A narrow topic will not only make your blog more focused and give you more expertise, but it will also be more likely to attract engaged readers.
So, a movie blog is too broad a topic. Since your readers have different tastes, you will post too much content that they are not interested in. The horror movie blog narrows things down a bit and will attract more hardcore fans, but it’s still a broad topic.
A blog about Universal’s monster movies is a completely different matter. This is where you will begin to develop a passionate fan base that will read everything you write.
You don’t need to be an expert. It’s enough to have an activity that you would like to learn, like brewing beer or investing in NFTs, or a topic that you want to dive into, like coin collecting or Star Wars.
Instead of blogging from an expert’s point of view, your blog can chronicle your journey and engage your readers in it.
Step 2. Choose a title and platform for your blog
To make your blog memorable and stand out, choose a unique and interesting title for it. From the title, it should be immediately clear what your blog is about. Make sure the “.com” domain is available. This is what people are looking for and expect to see.
As for the publishing platform, there are many paid and free options available for beginner bloggers.
Step 3: Create an editorial calendar
Once you’ve decided on a theme, registered a domain, and set up your blog, it’s time for one of the more interesting parts of the process. This is where you start collecting blog post ideas and creating your editorial calendar.
Planning your content for the first few weeks or months will help you set yourself up for success. You will not have a problem with what to write about at the most inopportune moment.
And here’s a little tip: while brainstorming, explore other blogs in your niche. You can write on the same or similar topics. You are not going to steal their content.
But what makes your blog unique is that you are your voice and point of view. This is a great way to find popular ideas that you can approach from a completely different perspective.
Step 4. Start writing
Finally, it’s time to create content. Here are a few things every aspiring blogger should keep in mind:
- Choose catchy headlines. Your headlines should grab the reader’s attention. The world’s best post won’t do you any good if people ignore it.
- Be relevant, useful, or interesting. It depends on your topic and whether you’re helping your readers solve a problem, teaching them something, or just writing about a shared passion. Now, when everyone is pressed for time, it is important to be able to keep the interest of users and give them a reason to continue reading.
- Use proven formulas (sometimes). People like list posts, how-tos, reviews, and personal stories. Try to combine them with each other. And be creative when it comes to your own ideas, formulas, and formats. Remember: on your blog, you are free to do whatever you want.
Step 5. Create your audience
One of the main ways to build an audience is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a long-term strategy. Your posts won’t rank first on Google and other search engines overnight. But over time, good SEO will help you drive a lot of organic traffic to your blog.
You will probably need to invest in a keyword research tool that will show you relevant search terms. You will be able to create posts around these keywords and integrate them into your content.
Another SEO best practice for content writers is to write with the reader in mind. And of course, make sure every piece of content you create is of the highest possible quality.
Keep in mind that long posts tend to rank better on Google than short ones. For best results in most niches, aim for 1,000-2,000 words.
Another way to build an audience for a beginner blogger is to use social media. Experiment with different platforms and see which ones work best for you and which ones you enjoy using. If you share your posts on social networks, more people will see them.
Step 6. Create your monetization and promotion strategies (even if you are a beginner blogger)
As you start building your audience, you will also start monetizing your blog. There are a huge number of ways to do this. Here are just a few of them:
- ad networks,
- sponsored content
- partnership deals,
- coaching or consulting services,
- sale of own products,
- and much more.
You don’t have to try to monetize your blog right away. It’s hard to make money until you start expanding your audience. It is very important to start creating a database of email addresses right away.
For starters, you can send notifications to your subscribers about new posts. From here, you’ll start developing your email marketing strategy. By having a list of email addresses, you have permission to keep in touch with people who have shown interest in what you write about and have taken action by subscribing.
This is the key to monetization. Over time, you will be able to promote affiliate deals or your products. And the longer your subscribers stay with you and read your blog, the more loyal they will be to you.
Conclusion
Now that you know everything about blogging, you can quickly and easily dive into it.
Remember that blogging is not a get-rich-quick strategy; it is a process that takes time, patience, effort, and discipline. Only under these conditions will you be able to start earning additional income from your blog, even as a beginner.
High conversions for you!