Published on June 28th, 2017 | by Guest

Starting a Successful Blog: Useful Technology Pointers For Budding Bloggers

One of the best ways to create and build your personal brand is through blogging. When done right, blogs help you gain online credibility and authority on your chosen subject matter by providing you with a widely accessible platform to share your stories, express your feelings, and offer advice and insights that can help readers who are looking for an accurate and helpful resource on a specific topic.

And if you play your cards right, you can even make money with your blog.

However, making a blog wouldn’t be as easy as pie. There are a couple of things and methods you’d have to learn first in order for it to be buoyant. Interested in creating one? Let’s use your internet time efficiently by learning how to create a successful blog.

Different Types of Blogs

The first step to creating a blog is to identify which type you are most interested in. Make sure to choose wisely, as you will have to stick with it until you decide to create another blog.

Niche Blogs

Niche blogs are those that talk about the blogger’s specific interests. It can be about cooking, movies, music, fashion, makeup, arts, and even traveling. Usually, all content in this type of blog is centered on the “niche” chosen by the author. However, venturing into other topics every once in awhile is of course possible.

Personal Blogs

For this type of blog, it mainly discusses the personal emotions of the author. It will be about life experiences, struggles, memorable moments, and people who made a change in the writer’s life. It aims to share and inspire readers, making this the most common type of blog.

Forum Blogs

Forum blogs are made to make a responsive community out of avid readers. It is a safe space wherein the blogger encourages the readers to ask questions, react, share their opinions, and express their feelings toward a certain topic.

Review Blogs

Lastly, a review blog is usually where the author shares his or her personal point-of-view about a certain product, service, or business establishment. This can be reviews on the latest gadgets, movies, books, places, foods, and even experiences. It also motivates the readers to share their insights to help other readers.

How to Create Your Blog

Don’t know where to start in building your blog? Guess what—other bloggers most likely went through the same dilemma, too. There’s no exact formula on how you can create a successful blog. However, with the right tips and tricks, you can definitely make a blog that’s worth reading.

Here are some useful tips on how you can start your blog:

Choose a blogging platform, domain name, and hosting plan

For starters, you’ll need to choose a blogging platform that will best suit your blog’s needs. Choose a platform that can be customized freely, depending on your preference. As for the domain name, it should give readers an idea of what your blog is about. Also, invest in a hosting plan that offer the features that you need, such as unmetered bandwidth, unlimited subdomains, an email account that uses your domain name.

Identify your audience

Before you create the actual blog, think about your target audience. Figure out your blog’s demographic by creating personas for each type of reader.

Doing so can help you pinpoint the right content to produce that targets possible subscribers.

Learn Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Do you want your blog to be “findable” on search engines? Even if you create the most beautifully designed blog, no one’s going to read it if you don’t take the time to make it SEO-friendly. Now, the best way to do that is to learn SEO or Search Engine Optimization. This skill can help you understand how Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines rank websites, thereby giving you an idea as to how you can rank your website and blog pages for your desired search terms.

Try to read up on optimizing your blog’s content to have a better understanding on how to increase your blog’s traffic.

Use tools to monitor your blog’s SEO standing

Utilize efficient blogging tools that can give you figures on your blog’s performance in different areas. Track what’s trending and what’s not. Discover topics that will perform well on your blog. Use the data to your advantage by formulating and implementing strategies on how you can attract more readers, increase traffic, and establish a loyal following.

Produce compelling content that provides value to your readers

Your blog’s main goal is to provide value to your readers. Otherwise, why would they even visit your blog? Produce useful, compelling content that will not only entertain readers, but also teach and inform them about new things. And of course, make sure that your blog posts are accompanied by striking and stunning visual elements (photos, infographics, videos, and more) to help grab the attention of your readers and keep them engaged.

Build high-quality backlinks

As you learn SEO, you’ll become more familiar with the different ways on how you can get increase your search engine ranking. One of the most effective ways of improving your visibility on search engines and increasing your traffic is by building links.

Connect with influential bloggers in the same niche and ask about possible guest posting opportunities. This will allow you to get your posts published on another blog—with a link back to your own blog. The benefits of such opportunities is that you obtain a backlink (which helps increase your credibility with search engines) and you gain exposure with other readers, who might just visit your blog and become avid followers of yours as well.

Read other blogs

Check out successful blogs in the same niche to see how they choose topics, how they create their blog posts, and how they interact with the readers. This can give you an idea on how to successfully manage your own blog.

Build your network

Once you get the hang of blogging, start building your network. Collaborate with other bloggers, contact possible sponsors, and connect with your readers on a more personal level. The more people you have in your network, the more opportunities you will have to improve or promote your blog.

How to Make Money With Blogging

As mentioned earlier, blogging can help you earn money. A lot of bloggers leave their regular day jobs to do professional blogging for a living.

Want to give it a try? Here are some ways to monetize your blog:

Include affiliate links in your blog

Bloggers are known for writing reviews about products or services. This is how some of the biggest names in blogging earn their hefty paychecks. For example, if you’re using a specific brand that helped you be the fittest version of yourself, make an honest review about it and include affiliate links from that brand. If they see that a significant amount of traffic is coming from your site, they will notice you and eventually propose a partnership.

Offer paid advertising spaces

As you partner up with brands, they may want to “buy” advertising space on your website. However, keep in mind that you should also protect your blog’s image, and excessive ads can lead to loss of credibility and readers.

Permit sponsored posts

Companies and businesses are always looking for online influencers who can help them promote their brand. In the case of bloggers, this promotion usually happens in the form of a sponsored post or review. If your blog stats are great and you have plenty of readers, they will most likely contact you and commission you to create a sponsored post for them.

Want to be more transparent with your readers? Write “Sponsored Guest Post” or something similar anywhere on the blog post to tell your readers that you were paid to publish it. But of course, make sure to provide your honest thoughts, and add a disclaimer that says so.

Sell digital products

Make money by selling digital products such as e-books or stock photos and videos. Once you have made yourself a credible authority on a certain subject, your readers will no doubt want to buy any type of material you come up with that relates to that subject. For instance, if you have made a name for yourself as a vegan food guru and you decide to create a vegan cookbook or even a vegan cooking app, you will definitely be able to sell them to your readers.

If you are a travel blogger, you can sell your most stunning travel snaps as stock photos, or even as photographic artwork.

A successful blog isn’t defined by the expensiveness of the domain or how mesmerizing the design is. Its success rate will depend on you—the blogger—and how your message will positively influence readers.

Tags: blog, bloggers, budding, starting, successful, technology, useful