Blogging For Beginners

What is blogging?

Blogging is termed as a regularly updated and maintained website by an individual where content and ideas are shared about a particular niche or area of interest. The tone of the blog is usually conversational and casual or formal depending upon the niche chosen. The person who opts for blogging is called a blogger.

In current conditions where most of the people are financially impacted due to COVID-19, blogging could be an alternative way to generate passive income. Before starting blogging as a business straight away, it is best to understand what blogging is all about or what are the blogging best practices to give you a head start.

purpose of a blog

In today’s digital world, where the internet is rife with information and content, it is of utmost importance to understand the purpose of blogging for content creation and that is to improve the visibility of your website and rank it higher organically in the search engines. If you have done your job with due diligence and have a passion for it, there is a fair chance that you can opt for making money for your living.

All the businesses, these days, are relying on digital marketing to improve their visibility and increase their customer base. A blog can help them serve this purpose. Using carefully chosen keywords relevant to the particular industry, a blog improves the visibility of the business on the digital canvas and helps it in lead generation. However, blogging must be done on a regular basis to keep the momentum and also to keep the ranking higher in the search engine. Add a Call-to-Action CTA to guide your readers to the next step.

When a person regularly blogs and produces quality content with research and due depth of knowledge, the blog is not only considered in high regard by the readers but also encouraged by the search engines in terms of information provided. Such a person gradually becomes an expert of niche and is considered an authority and subject matter expert of his own niche. It is, however, common for any blogger to choose 4-5 different niches and provide his services for them.

Types of blogging

www.beingguru.com has provided many blogging tips for the beginners and has concisely explained the types of blogging, one can opt for to start blogging as a business. Some of them are listed below as:

1. Ghostwriting services:

You can offer your blogging services to other bloggers, influencers, businesses, or websites, in exchange for money, without taking the credit for your work.

2. Guest blogging service:

Guest blogging is one of the most important marketing strategies among all digital marketing strategies. You are invited to share your views in form of a blog on someone else’s website or blog pape. Companies are usually looking for such professionals who can help them present their views on other platforms or portals.

3. Paid email newsletters:

All the businesses, these days, send regular email newsletters to their clients. If you have a knack for writing and are able to convey the message precisely, you can offer your services to such businesses and make money for rendering your services.

4. Sell mini-guides:

Guides, DIY’s, and small handy manual to tackle a task can also be a good strategy to earn money. A mini-guide can sell up to anywhere from $7 to $10

 

5. Write for paid blogging sites:

A quick search on google will exhibit a plethora of blogging websites churning content day in day out. You can offer your services to such with full credit and negotiable contract. www.beingguru.com  suggests that goof articles may be paid in excess of $50.

6. Content for magazines:

Apart from blogging websites, there are hundreds of e-magazines catering to the need of their particular clientele niches. If their niche matches your area of interest, you can offer your services for their publications with a good pay rate of up to $100 to $200 per month.

7. Copywriting services:

Copywriting is one of the ever-evolving fields since the times of print media. Be it a good ad on social media channels or text on websites, brochures, emails, and catalogs. Only a good copy and tone of voice would attract your potential customers. If you are confident of your copywriting skills, this could be the field of your choice. 

8. Write eBooks and sell:

Every business offers eBooks these days to collect information from their clients in exchange for some handy information. You can venture into this field by offering to create ebooks for businesses with a good chance of making money.

How to start a blog?

Blogging seems to be an attractive path for those who want to jump on the bandwagon and start blogging in the spur of the moment. It is important, however, to clear the business basics and develop an easy to understand blogging business plan before proceeding to blog sites.

www.beingguru.com has concisely developed a seven-step plan for anyone who is interested in blogging and is explained below as:

1. Identify your blogging niche.

2. Start writing content. Make sure it is original and not plagiarized.

3. Put an eye catchy picture on your blog.

4. Support your blog with a video (Video tends to engage readers higher).

5. Make sure your content has SEO friendly keywords.

6. WordPress is by far the best medium for creating your blog.

7. Publish your blog, share it on different social media accounts.

Apart from the above seven steps, if you are aiming to start your own website, be mindful of the availability of the domain name and the total charges incurred annually for the domain and hosting services combined. WordPress is the most preferred platform among the bloggers but if you are having difficulty, in the beginning, acquiring a new WordPress website from scratch, you may opt for Blogger powered by Google. 

Blogging Issues:

Life is not all unicorns and rainbows and the same is true for blogging. Many seem tempted to start blogging without keeping in mind the following issues as suggested by https://buildawellnessblog.com/pros-and-cons-of-blogging/

 

1. Time Management:

Writing a good blog takes blood, sweat, and toil. With the recommended word limit of at least 2000 words and the requirement of being a subject matter expert, blogging takes a fair bit of time to produce quality content.  These days, longer comprehensive content, using the right keywords, is king not only to satisfy the customer but also to rank higher for SEO purposes. 

2. Flexibility is a double-edged sword:

While blogging seems flexible while working from home, it is very easy to get distracted due to unimportant house chores, be it snacking or talking to kids or receiving a call. To meet this challenge, it is important to establish a strict work regime and then stick to it. 

3. Generating ideas:

Blogging is not everyone’s cup of tea. While some people are naturally adept at writing, for others thinking of a blogging idea itself could be a big task let alone writing a complete blog. The tone of blogging has to be conversational, informational, and casual to engage the readers. If that’s the case for you, think twice before venturing into this field, and monetizing your blogging as being irregular on your blogging update will do you more harm than benefit. In the initial years, blogging is a full-time job to garner the image of subject matter expert and this requires consistency, perseverance, and determination.

 6. It takes time to make money:

Every business takes time to create wealth and blogging is no different. Do not expect a fortune overnight instead use your passion to keep you motivated. Over a period of time, your blogs will start getting attention from industry, readers, and businesses alike and would gradually start to give a good ROI on your blogging efforts.

Vlogs:

Another aspect of blogging is vlogging. Vlog stands for video-blog and is used for the short videos uploaded on social media especially youtube. A vlog should be used in conjunction with a blog. You may have a good blog audience but vlog will open up a whole new arena of clientele for your brand which will further help your endorse your brand from an SEO perspective. The salient benefits of vlogs can be summarised below as: 

• A vlog helps to build a personal connection with your audience where they can communicate directly with you in your live stream or via comments

• Regular vlogging helps develop a loyal audience. Youtube is one of the biggest search engines after Google and being present on Youtube means an improvement in your branding, visibility, and higher ranking in the search engines.

• Often interconnect your blog and vlog by crosslinking. This will again help being ranked higher in the SERP’s

Affiliate blogging:

 The affiliate blogging simply refers to promoting products or services on your blog. You can add affiliate links to those products or services on your blog. When someone clicks on those links, you will get a commission from the merchant.

Simply put, affiliate blogging or affiliate marketing is similar to commissioned sales and can be a handy way to earn money.

 

Blog Structure:

Blogging is the most widely used form of content creation. Using well-searched keywords and placing them strategically across the whole blog improves the site visibility on the search engines. If you are a business owner and trying to do digital marketing, it’s better to put on a marketer hat while blogging and think from your customers’ perspective. What are they looking for? What are their pain points? Curate ideas from the keywords your customers use to search and describe your business and then use those phrases in your blogs. A well-written blog must have the following points:

An attractive and eye-catching title: The first thing people notice about a blog is its title to understand what the blog could be about. To make it easy for your customers and search engines, use clearly defined keywords in the title statement

The context of the blog should be well written and formatted properly for easy reading and understanding. It is always a good idea to use bullet points to avoid long paragraphs.

Content is the king but an image is worth a thousand words. A sharp, crisp, and clear image relevant to your industry attracts the possible leads and helps them move along their customer journey. Make sure to use Alt text to describe the image to help with SEO optimization.

Apart from using high definition images, infographics, presentations,s, and videos all help in content creation. Vlog is a modern form of a traditional blog and is gaining popularity day by day to improve digital presence.

Each blog must have a Call-To-Action button to guide the people to move to their next step and to help boost lead generation.

 

Monetizing your blog: 

Some people opt for blogging as they enjoy expressing their thoughts in words. This helps them connect with their listeners and audience. For people, who opt for blogging as professionals, the monetization aspect holds importance. Hence, it is paramount to establish 3 basic stepping stones for blogging as suggested by www.beingguru.com below:

1. It needs to have great content for audience engagement in order to make money

2. It should be picked by search engines

3. it should have good social media engagement

Once you have clicked on the three boxes above, it is time to check the monetization option for your blog. Neil Patel suggests that a blog is easier to monetize once it reaches 10,000 monthly views. Anything less than that suggests employing alternative strategies as offering coaching services in your area of expertise, becoming a freelance blogger, and selling ebooks and courses online.

In case of meeting the 10,000 views per month, the next option is to look for the monetization option. The best pick as per www.beingguru.com is Google Adsense which is Google’s partner program. The secret behind monetization is visibility. If your blog attracts a large number of daily readers, advertisers would be happy to put their ads on your blog page or website to increase their visibility and customer awareness in return for money.