Guide To Writing Your First Blog
Blogging is an important marketing tactic for any small business owner. Blogging can also be a fun activity for sharing your ideas or your adventures. Regardless of why you decide to start blogging, there are some blogging rules that have been tried and proven true.
Here are some of the best tips for writing a new blog.
Make sure that you are blogging about something that you love.
Whether you are writing for a business purpose or strictly for pleasure, consistency is the number one characteristic that every blog needs to have in order to be successful. There is no way that you will be able to be consistent unless you are writing about something that you absolutely love. Make sure the subject matter is something that you would write about for free because you probably will be for quite some time.
The most important reason to write about something that you love is that people will pick up on this passion. You can bet that no matter what you are blogging about, there are already hundreds of blogs about the same subject matter. The only thing that separates your writing space from the competition is the passion that is in your perspective. Make sure this comes through in every word that you write.
Take the time to find your keywords early on.
Keywords help organize your writing in the eyes of the three major search engines. Google, Yahoo and Bing all have slightly different methods for judging where a website belongs in search rankings. However, all of their algorithms include keywords at the top of the list. See our blog about getting to the top of Google for more info.
Keywords simply mean the words or phrases that will comprise the theme of your subject matter. The more precise these keywords are, the better. It is usually not a good idea to use generic, short keywords. They have usually been written about far too much, and there is too much competition already out there for generic keywords.
You can make your keywords more specific by localizing them as well. This is one of the best strategies for a new writer. The more that you appeal to a niche that is close to you, the more likely you are to have a consistent audience that you can build on. There is nothing worse than trying to appeal to a general audience online. Just because you have the ability to reach millions of people does not mean that you can do so without millions of dollars in your marketing budget. You can reach a local audience much more quickly, and they will spread the news about your writing for you through their social circles. This is also how you create viral content. For instance, if you live in Windsor, then you want to do some blogging Windsor residents can immediately latch onto.
Learn your platform.
The platform on which you publish your writing will make a big difference in how you format your content. Most people use WordPress because of the flexibility within the different themes. Basically, you can choose a visual presence that coincides with the writing that you want to do. However, you may want to opt for a platform that is a bit simpler. In this case, you need to learn the user interface that you will be working with.
You may want to infuse your writing with pictures, captions, or links to outside material. You have all of these options with most online word processors, but not all. Before you commit yourself to a platform, you need to be sure that it has all of the features that you are looking for.
Keep your content up-to-date, relevant and precise.
If you want people to read your content for an extended period of time, then it needs to have all of these characteristics. First of all your content must be relevant. The audience that you attract does not want to see generic content that is too flexible. They are coming to you for particular expertise, and you should deliver this to them in every piece of material that you put on the Internet.
Secondly, your content should be up-to-date. If you are too far behind the new cycle for the industry, business or topic that you are focusing on, people will simply go to another website to get the information sooner. They will not read your material because you will be too far behind the curve.
Finally, you need to make sure that your material is extremely precise. Yes, people come to your website for a particular perspective. However, they are also coming for factual information. You may be able to get away with material that is not precise at the beginning of your adventures online. However, if people consistently see that your content is not factually correct, they will slowly but surely move away from your writing. There are simply too many choices for anyone to trust a website that cannot get its facts straight.
You will always have controversy about the best way to write, but learn to separate the technical tips that you should follow from the creative tips that you may or may not follow. The tips above have been done by some of the best blogging Windsor trusts. You can use them knowing that you will be putting your best foot forward on the Internet!
Here is a more comprehensive post about blog creation – Creative Market – Blogging Guide
