12 Blogging Tips for Beginners

Want to start a blog and give yourself the best possible chance of making it a success?

As a new blogger, you don’t want to feel too much pressure.

Being too busy can make the difference between having a good blog that only exists in your head and having a great blog that you can look at with pride and say, “I made this.”

Because of this, we’re going to focus on 12 easy-to-follow, high-quality blogging tips instead of a million hacks and tips.

Ready?

Let’s get started!

1. Choose a market niche where love and money meet

To become a successful blogger, put the odds in your favor by picking a niche that is both popular and easy to make money from.

If you’re interested in more than one niche or topic, it might be hard for you to choose one path.

Here are some questions that can help you choose.

Is it a topic that gets a lot of people searching for it? You want your content, not the topic you write about, to be unique. So first, make sure there are a lot of people interested in the niche. If you don’t, you’ll never be able to make money from your blog.

Is there any other choice? Look for blogs and influential people on your topic to see if there is a market for it. Competition is good because it shows the way to a busy, well-liked place.

Do you like this subject? Imagine yourself on a cold winter day, curled up on the couch with a book, and the whole day to yourself. What does that book talk about? If it’s about the same thing as your blog, that’s a good sign. Choose a subject that you can write about every day for at least three years.

Have you done work or lived in ways that relate to your niche? Love to see new places? A travel blog could be fun. Do you know a lot about social networks like Reddit and LinkedIn? Do you have digital marketing experience that could give you an edge?

Is there a way to make money with what you want to talk about? How is money being made by other blogs in this space? Before you start blogging, make sure there is a way to make money from it.

2. Know who you’re writing for

How well your content does will depend on how well you know your audience.

When you know your audience, you can connect with them in a strong way. Use their language to show that you are part of the group and that you understand them.

Quality content that speaks to your audience and keeps them on your site is the foundation of any smart content strategy.

After all, if you don’t know what your readers want and need, your content might not be helpful or interesting to them. They will quickly move on to the next blog.

First, figure out who you want to read your work. Then look into them. Who do they read blogs? What are their favorite podcasts? Find out what their problems are or what they want to achieve and how your content can help them.

Empathy is very important here, and one of the best ways to understand people is to be one of them.

3. Choose the Best Blog Platform

What is the “right” platform to use for a blog? It depends. Are you blogging for fun? As a side job? Are you trying out this blog thing to see if it will stick? Then look for things that are free.

Making an account on Medium.com is one of the best free things you can do. Not only is it free, but it’s also very easy to do. And with more than 60 million unique readers every month, there’s no need to bring people in.

WordPress.com has a free plan if you really want a site. But you should know that it’s not the same as living in your own house.

If you want to blog as a business, you’ll need a self-hosted WordPress.org website. This will cost money, but it will give your new blog a much more professional look.

Plus, you don’t want to depend on a free platform that could kick you off at any time or tell you what you can and can’t do. No, if you’re serious, you’ll want a site that you host yourself. Hostinger offers cheap hosting.

After you set up your WordPress blog, you will have to choose a theme. Your WordPress themes will only affect the look of your blog, but they can also affect how fast your site loads, so choose wisely. The Elementor website builder can be used with different themes and makes beautiful pages in minutes. There are a lot of great free WordPress themes, which is good news.

4. Less is more: Choose plugins that are smart.

WordPress is very strong, but it can’t have every feature that everyone wants. You wouldn’t want it to, either, because that would make the software too big and full of bugs, which is nerd-speak for slow and unreliable.

Instead, you can use plugins to add extra features to WordPress when you need them.

Plugins are pieces of code that you can add to your WordPress site. Many are free for the basic level of service, and you can pay for extra features. Just know that they can slow down your site, so don’t use them unless they have a clear purpose.

Each plugin you choose for WordPress needs to work well with your theme and the other plugins you’ve already installed. You’ll also want to make sure that the plugin is regularly updated, which shows that the developers still care about it.

The safest thing to do is to stick with well-known plugins that other WordPress users rate highly.

Some types of smart or useful plugins are:

• Plugins that improve performance can make pages load faster. Your web host may be able to give you one.
• SEO assistant plugins like Yoast SEO help with basic on-page SEO (don’t worry, we’ll talk more about this later).
• Plugins for automatic backup Make copies of your blog and upload them to Google Drive or other online storage services like UpdraftPlus.

5. Titles are very important

There’s a lot of noise out there.

You could spend hours on a post that is well-researched and full of useful information. But nothing will happen if no one reads it. That means you won’t get any organic traffic, page views, email subscribers, or lives will be changed.

One of the first things you need to learn as a blogger is how to write catchy headlines. Ones that wave and shout at your ideal readers, “Hey! Look, I wrote this for you, and here’s what you’ll get out of it!”

Headlines should be specific. That way, the person you want to read your post will know exactly who it is for and what it’s about.

Try to come up with as many headlines as you can. The first ones you think of are often “meh.” But if you keep going, you’ll eventually write one that makes you happy.

6. Write useful content that is optimized for people who read online

Writing for online readers means giving them useful information in a way that is easy to understand.

Here are the most important rules:

• Write like you are having a conversation with a friend. Try not to be too formal. Here, you can make a deal.
• Make it easy to read your post. Which means:
• Use subheadings to help people who scan. People will quickly look at your post to decide if it’s worth their time and effort.
• Don’t write a lot of text. Write short paragraphs that get to the point.
• Avoid rambling. Keep your post focused on one main idea and only as long as it needs to be to get that point across.
• When it makes sense, add screenshots and other images to give your reader a break from reading.

Whenever you can, using facts and references to back up your claims adds value and makes your arguments more real.

Using powerful words in your blog posts will give them more energy. And giving examples will bring your writing to life by giving real-world examples for ideas that are otherwise hard to understand. They help people understand ideas better and can even show people what they can do in their own lives.

7. Edit First, then publish

We’ve all seen it. The post that someone wrote but did not proofread.

After the third or fourth careless spelling mistake, you decided that if the author didn’t take the time to edit, why should you?

Please, don’t write like that. We want you to do well with your blog.

Let your new content sit for a day or two after you make it. Then come back and stop being so hard on yourself.

Edit before you send it out!

As you get better at writing and become a more experienced blogger, make a list of the mistakes that keep coming back to haunt you. For example, my background in business sometimes shows up in my writing. Some of my rough drafts are boring to read because they use too much passive voice and formal, stilted language.

Put together a list. Don’t try to keep everything in your mind.

Use a simple grammar checker as well. Both Google Docs and Microsoft Word have free tools built in to check for spelling and grammar mistakes. No excuses!

If you want more help with grammar, you can get software that is easy to use and costs different amounts. Grammar checkers aren’t perfect, and a human editor is still the best way to go. Still, they can be a cheap way to find and fix the most obvious mistakes.

8. Be consistent

Let’s be honest. You started a blog because you love to write, but sometimes writing is the last thing you want to do.

Sometimes it’s hard to write.

A couple of days off isn’t a big deal, but it could cause you to lose momentum. The days turn into weeks, which then become months.

Don’t write only when you feel like it to avoid this. Make a plan for writing. Be consistent.

You have a choice to make as a new blogger: How often are you going to post something new? Weekly? Monthly?

Set a plan for how often you’ll post, and stick to it. This is important for readers.

9. Find your people on the Internet. Build Your Email List

Bloggers who have been around for a while all seem to say the same thing: don’t wait to start your email list.

Yes, it’s scary, but the chances are that most of the people who visit your website will only come once and won’t come back.

Don’t forget that you don’t own a list of the people who follow you on social media. On a platform, everything you build could be destroyed in one night.

No one can take away your email list, which is a good thing.

After you choose an email marketing service, you’ll need to come up with a reason for readers to sign up. Think about the kinds of deals that make you want to give your email address.

The incentive has to be useful, not just to a group of people, but to your group of people.

Put pop-ups and landing pages with opt-ins that offer those sweet incentives in multiple places on your blog to make it easy for people to subscribe.

Then, once you have a list, talk to your readers to build a relationship with them. Ask them questions and ask for their answers. This will give you the information you can use to make even better content that hits your audience harder.

If you want to build a personal brand, monetize your blog, and try to make a living from it full-time, the first thing you need to do is start an email list.

10. Get to know the ABCs of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Want people to find you online? Google can send people to your site for free, but it will cost you. That price is learning the basics of SEO and putting them into practice.

First, you need to learn how to find keywords. Keyword research is the process of finding out what words or phrases people use to look for information about your topic.

To show up in Google searches, you need a lot of high-quality backlinks from sites that Google sees as trustworthy authorities on your topic or in your blogging niche that point to your content.

You also need to know what people are looking for when they type those keyword phrases into a search engine. The key is to make sure that the content you make answers the questions people are asking when they search.

Typing your topic keyword into Google’s search box is a good way to do this. Then look at the top results to see what kind of content is ranking well.

AnswerThePublic is another way to find out what people want to know. With this tool, you can type in the name of a topic to see what questions people are asking about it.

11. Show off your best on social media

Once you’ve made good content for your target audience, you should share it on social media.

Always start by looking at the rules.

For example, don’t join Facebook groups and post links to your website because you could be kicked out of the group. Almost every group has rules about how to talk about yourself, so be sure to follow them.

Marketing on social media is a huge subject. Pick just one social media platform to start with to keep things simple.

Try to pick the one where you’re most likely to find your target audience. Before you move on to the next platform, you should only work on the one you’re on.

Each social media site serves a different purpose and is used by a different group of people.

Pinterest is a great place for blogs that focus on pictures (For example a home decorating blog). You make eye-catching images and post them with links to your blog posts.

Through tweets of up to 280 characters, you can connect with other people on Twitter. You can take part in discussions and let people know who you are.

You can join or make groups on Facebook, which gives you a sense of community. Just keep in mind that the rules can and do change at any time.

12. Plan for the future

Getting good at blogging takes time.

And making content is both fun and hard at the same time.

To keep going for a long time, you need to really care about what you’re writing about. You should read and write about it because you enjoy it, not because you want to make money from it.

Think about how your content makes people’s lives better to keep yourself going.

If you don’t, you’ll give up too soon.

Make it fun. Now is the time for you to try new things as a new blogger. It’s time for you to speak up.

Your own blog might be a lonely ghost town right now, so posting on a more popular blog with a relevant audience might get you noticed. Try writing a series of guest posts and offering to write content for other blogs.

Yes, as soon as you set up your blog, you should install Google Analytics, a tool for collecting data. But don’t worry too much about the numbers just yet. This comes after that.

As a new blogger, you need to pay attention to more important things, like the ones in the post below about blogging milestones.

Let’s be honest. If this is your first time making a blog, you probably won’t be able to make enough money right away to do it full-time. You might not make any money for a while if you blog. But if you keep trying and work hard, you increase your chances of success.

So, which of these tips about blogging are you going to try first?

When you read a list of tips for blogging, you can figure out what you need to do. But reading about something is very different from doing it.

• So, make a plan. Find your topic and your audience first.
• Then, go through this list of tips one by one in a planned way.
• Don’t think of all the tips at the same time. Don’t forget to take one step at a time.
• The more you use these tips, the better your website will be.
• You’ll get better at blogging, writing, and marketing with content.

But have patience and know that this won’t happen all at once. Give it the hard work and time it needs.

Above all else, enjoy your blogging journey!