Many of us now dream of handing in our notice and working from home on our niche blog, taking attractive photos on a DSLR and receiving promotional gifts from brands who want us to share their products.
But blogging is not a career move to take lightly, while you might be a decent writer and have something to say you need to carefully think about your blog and how to make it into a brand to actually start making money.
Here is a quick beginner’s guide to blogging, to help you decide if you have what it takes to essentially manage your own business from behind your laptop screen:
Blogging is about great content
People will only read your blog if its content is relevant, interesting, and inspirational. There is a well known rule that those browsing the world wide web want to be inspired or entertained and it’s up to you to do this with your blogging platform.
Know your niche
Are you a fashion blogger? A fitness fanatic? Or do you want to blog to review the latest films and TV shows? There is a blog for every niche out there but you must decide which one you belong to. People will make their way to your blog when searching for your main focus, so ensure yours remains on track and knows its identity.
Plan your content
Are you going to create in depth articles or short pieces that reflect on your daily events? When are you going to post these? Look ahead on the calendar to relevant events you can create content to coincide with, it will make it easier to share on social media. Try to post regularly and you can even schedule posts in advance to be published at the optimum time.
Choose the right blogging site
Most bloggers started out on Blogger but if you want full customisation and great insightful stats then WordPress is the stronger option. The site offers a huge range of attractive themes for free that can be easily customised, have thousands of plug ins, and is an easy blog post creation tool.
Set up social media
You need to share the content you create on your blog quickly and easily. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are all good platforms for this and allow you to share visual posts to your followers, who should start to take an interest thick and fast when they realise you’re writing content they care about. Cater your posts to the platform and look into ensuring your imagery is as good as it can be. Here’s a helpful how to video from big name blogger and vlogger Helen Anderson.
Don’t keep that free domain name
Whether you opt for Blogger or WordPress you will find that your domain name is something similar to: blogname.wordpress.com. In order for your blog to do well when it comes to visibility on Google you need your own domain names. These can be pricey so look for available domain names from UK2, a site that specialises in personalised domains for reasonable annual prices.
Network online
Talking to other bloggers and brands is a great way of getting your name out there. Comment on prolific bloggers posts and look into collaborating with bloggers in similar niches to you for some extra reach. It could be featuring in a YouTube video together or writing a guest post for their site – if you have something interesting to say, get involved and let people know who you are.
Most of all have fun
Blogging is a popular pastime for many people these days, who have seen the likes of Zoella and Inthefrow do well and want to join them in chatting about what they love – and earn a little side cash from it, too. Don’t set your heart on making blogging a full time job, simply have fun writing about what you enjoy and if it turns into something more then it’s time to up your business orientated game.
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