As someone who’s been in the blogging industry for a while, I’ve collected a few tips and tricks along the way. Now, alongside the relaunch of my blog I’ve been focusing on ways to improve it more and more. If you’re looking to start a blog for the first time, let me help you out with the hard work. Here are some of my favourite tips for new bloggers!
Introduction
I first started a blog back in 2018. But if you’ve been following along with some of my older anecdotes such as Why I Became a Journalist, I’ve been interested in writing for much longer. It’s only been recently that I’ve started to pay more attention in driving my blog forward commercially, and it’s fair to say I’ve made a few mistakes along the way. That’s part of the journey!
I’ve had to learn as I go, and am now refining my blog into what I want it to be – optimising it to be the best that I can offer. Whilst I’ve had to work it out the difficult way, if there’s the chance to help someone who’s just starting out then it would be rude not to offer my advice. I’ll leave it up to you to determine if it’s useful or not!
Choose a niche
If you’ve read some of my older posts such as The Importance of a Niche in Blogging, you would know that I struggled finding one for a long time. However, establishing a niche early on is one of the best things you can do. I have found it more important as I’ve progressed, particularly as I’m looking to drive more and more traffic to my website.
A great niche will balance the things you are passionate about writing, with the potential for profit and overall reach. In the past, I was more focused on my passion for writing. That’s why I was hesitant to narrow down my focus.
However, I’ve found that with a lifestyle blog, there is still a great capacity to still write about the things I enjoy, without taking away that potentiality for profit. After all, passion is still necessary. If you’re uninterested about what you’re writing about, that will reflect in your content. On the other hand, if you hope to make money from a blog, you need to get clear about what your niche is, with extensive research around that.
Do your (keyword) research
Alongside choosing your niche, you’ll also want to research and do a deep-dive into the the keywords surrounding the topic. With so much content available on the Internet, certain topics can become completely saturated. Keyword research helps you to find your position on the Internet, as you compete for traffic and readership from your competitors.
Keyword research also helps you to find the sweet spots of your niche, and to find the things that your audience are actually looking for. If you find low difficulty keywords, it will be easier for you to rank for that content within search engines. That’s why keyword research is so beneficial.
There are different tools available to help you research keywords. Some of the best ones include:
- Moz – a great tool for effective keyword research, but bare in mind that with a free account the searches are limited monthly.
- SEMrush – I use this software extensively in my employed role, so I know how beneficial it can be for keyword research. Although you have to pay to use them, it has many different features that not only help with keyword research and topics, but how to optimise your website overall.
- Google Keyword Planner – completely free, and great for finding suggestions straight from your website.
Ranking on Google is one of, if not the most important way to get consistent traffic to your website. One of the ways you can do this is through consistency, keyword research and search engine optimisation (SEO).
Choose the right platform
Again, this is where you can learn from my mistakes. When I started out, I started using Wix. Having never built a website before, I found it easy to use to get my content online and to start sharing my writing with the world straight away. It was okay for a while, it did the job.
But through what I was learning in my career, and the direction I wanted to take my blog, I found that it wasn’t going to suffice any longer. Some of the features are quite limited. If you’re looking to drive more traffic, you may consider investing in a different platform.
That’s why I made the decision to migrate my website onto WordPress. It’s self-hosted, with many bloggers using it across the Internet. Extended functionality can be added on with plugins, some of which are at no extra cost, making it completely customisable. Additionally, there are many built in SEO features that make optimising your website easy, boosting your presence within search engines.
I’ve found that as a complete beginner, Wix was a great platform to use. However, through my own experience at work, I’ve come to find WordPress is better overall in terms of functionality, optimisation and driving traffic.
Think about your goals and what you intend to do with your blog. Make sure you’ve done your research on different platforms. Otherwise you’ll have to go through it all again like I did!
Promote your blog on social media
Social media is a great way to drive traffic to your blog, whether it’s the website overall or to a specific post. Unfortunately, there’s no fast-track way to get your blog out there. Consistency is going to be key, in all areas of your blog.
But whilst you don’t need a huge following across your social media, it can be a great way to drive traffic overall. If you’re not on there, people won’t see you!
One of the main drivers is Pinterest. With 522 million users in Q2 of 2024, your potential outreach is going to be huge. Many people use Pinterest as a search engine, so it’s a great place to be posting your blogs through pins. It’s also an easy way to display and promote your content, to a vast audience who use the platform for the purpose of information and inspiration. So make sure you’re on there, inspiring as you go!
Don’t be a perfectionist
Now, I’m definitely susceptible to this. If it’s not done right the first time, or doesn’t go exactly the way I want it to, then often I end up putting it off altogether. By setting unrealistic expectations, I’d end up procrastinating over a fear that if it doesn’t look right, it won’t be good at all.
The most important thing about blogging is writing – plain and simple. You have something to share with the world, so say it!
At its core, setting a blog up can be very simple. No matter what platform you choose, there are always free or low cost options available. Get your first blog written and live, and then the overall appearance and aesthetic can come later.
Out of all my tips for new bloggers, this is probably my favourite. I’m passionate about writing, and want other people to do the same. So don’t waste time worrying about what the blog looks like, just make sure you’re getting the first post written and live.
I’ve been on a blogging journey now for over 5 years. I’ve learnt a lot along the way, and I know that creating a successful blog doesn’t happen over night. In fact, I’m still trying to achieve that myself. But with hardwork and consistency, you should see results soon enough!
