The medium of a ‘blog’ was coined back in the late 90s, however, it’s only true in recent years that the act of blogging has exploded – WordPress reports that over 70 million new posts are released on their sites per month. This extraordinary figure continues to grow, and new bloggers continue to find success, mostly because consumers’ hunger for this shareable, honest, bite-sized pieces of content shows no sign of slowing.
Creating your own blog is easy: the most difficult part lies in finding a niche idea. However, once you’ve identified a topic area to write about, the technical side can be made as complex or as basic as you’d wish. Indeed, the most popular bloggers in the world today had no previous experience or knowledge with working on the Internet.
Finding your niche
Before you make the first steps towards bringing your blog to life, you need to find the topic of conversation you’ll weigh in on. Ideally, you want to create your blog around a subject matter you are passionate about and have a deep understanding in — if you do this, your content will sound sincere and informed, attracting and retaining new readers.
You don’t need to come up with a blog idea that is entirely unique. Remember, as the old adage says, “There’s no such thing as a new idea.” What you must be mindful of, however, is what your blog’s unique selling point will be. What will your frame of reference and your tone of voice offer that other blog writers in the same arena will not? Look for a niche within your category, rather than a niche category.
Blog writer extraordinaire Glennon Doyle Melton — the force behind Momastery — credits her success to simply serving the audience what she has. She felt readers were inspired and endeared by her frank honesty on life as a new mother recovers from addiction, so she chose to continue sharing her truth and now her writing reaches thousands.
Designing your perfect platform
You might choose not to focus on written content but instead opt for image or video blog. Regardless of the type of content, you’ll want to build the best possible platform from which to broadcast it.
A simple Internet search will reveal how many different platforms there are available to new bloggers today. Fortunately, help is at hand and many, more established, personalities have tested the various services and offered benefits and drawbacks of the major blogging platform, which should aid you in your selection.
As a beginner, it’s recommended you select a service which is simple and doesn’t require any knowledge of coding or web development. However, if you’re new to blogging but have professional training in CSS or HTML, then you may feel prepared to take this on!
Use social to support
A successful blog doesn’t exist in isolation; social media channels are an ideal place to reach a wider audience and direct traffic to your blog. You’ll also find that social media is a great way to connect with other bloggers and keep track of your favorite writers.
Depending on the category of blog you create, you may find that Instagram is the most effective social channel to find new followers and readers. Conversely, you may decide that Facebook – with its more natural fit to long prose posts — is more relevant.
Making it pay
After you’ve enjoyed a period of substantial growth and maintained a strong readership, you may choose to try and monetize your blog site. Converting your content from a hobby to a business can be a great additional source of income — indeed, it may even earn you enough to become your main employment. However, respect that once you turn your pleasure into business, your blogging demands may increase and you may need to flex your tone of voice or content type to please clients.
You don’t need to be an expert to start a blog…
Whether you are approaching your blogging project as a hobby or as a potential income generator, all bloggers start in the same place: with an idea and an Internet connection. As long as you have these, and work hard with frequent posting, who knows where your blogging journey may take you.