Start Blogging Successfully |
How to Tips for Creating Blog Posts that Convert Readers into Loyal Fans!
If you want to start a blog on the right food, you need to have a good plan in place. You not only need to know what you want to start writing about, but if you're starting a blog for monetary reasons, it's best to do a bit of research to see if your blog idea is even a viable one. After all, you don't want to put in hours, or even months of your time only to find out that the niche market that you chose for your blog won't make you any money.
So, here are some tips on how you can start a blog that you can earn money from …
Now, you can start blogging for free on platforms like Wordpress or Squarespace, but here's the thing…
If you want to be taken seriously, invest in getting your site hosted with a hosting company. It will cost you a small monthly fee. And it will be worth it because you don't want to have limitations on a free platform. You also don’t want to look like a complete novice if you want to be taken seriously by your readers.
If you want to earn an income, start by investing in proper hosting for your blog. It costs very little. I'll talk more about this in a minute, but first let's start with the basics.
What is a blog?
A blog is an informative website where you’re sharing information on a specific topic. Blogs are made up of a collection of articles centered around the main topic of your blog.
The articles could be tutorials or how-to articles that give step-by-step instructions on how to do something. Some articles could be more centered around showing a list tools and resources often used to help do things more easily in whatever niche market or topic area that your blog is about. You can get a ton of ideas for blog topics just seeing the keywords showing up in the dropdown search menu or at the bottom of the Google search page.
Want more blog topic ideas?
Here are some common article blog topic ideas you could write blog post article about:
Useful Topics – answering a common question by your readers. Let’s say you help women lose weight after pregnancy. A post could be “Delicious Meal Plans & Exercises for a Flatter Stomach”
Trending Topics – Talk about the latest trend and if it’s just a trend or actually something beneficial for your market. Is the paleo diet worth it?
Educational Topics – A how-to cook healthier meals in only 10 minutes
Controversial Topics – Two diets against each other and which is really worth considering.
Funny Stories – nuff’ said …
Industry Insights – If you’re a business, this could be helpful to your readers.
… just to name a few
Check out this list of ideas for health and wellness posts if you’re a wellness expert who needs more content ideas for your blog!
Why start a blog
If you have a keen interest in something or have a passion or strong belief about a particular topic, then it’s very likely that you could start a blog about it.
People from all walks of life create blogs on a variety of topics – from cooking, to fashion and style, to business to blogging about their pets or travel tips. A blog can be on almost any topic imaginable. As a health coach or being in the field of wellness – whether you’re a personal trainer, nutritionist, yoga instructor or a healthy eating food blogger, having a blog is one of the best ways to inform and engage with your audience while allowing you to showcase your expertise. A good blog with quality articles that are informative, up-to-date and helps your audience fulfill their specified needs, can really help you look like a credible source that not only your everyday person would enjoy, but industry leaders may even turn to you to collaborate and do business deals. This later situation has become very real for many bloggers – allowing them to make real businesses out of their blog.
As a wellness professional, blogging is an excellent way to leverage your expertise and build a business!
Blogger Myths & Misconceptions
One of the biggest misconceptions about blogging is that you have to be an expert writer or be an expert in your topic area. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that people naturally gravitate towards blogs where others are sharing their experience, opinion or perspective on some matter. The more real you are with your posts, the easier it is that you’ll gain the trust of your readers because it personalizes you and makes you more relatable. And by gaining your readers trust, you will also gain a loyal following of people who are eager to hear from you. This will mean that they’ll be excited to read each blog post you write, and will most likely choose to share your post with others who may find it useful.
More shares mean more traffic. And when you have a steady stream of loyal readers, this makes it easier for you to earn a living from your blog simply due to the fact that you’ll be able to make highly targeted offers that they’ll gladly welcome.
It’s all about providing value and being very strategic in sharing the information that your readers want to see.
But why are blogs so popular?
Well, they not only give you an outlet for sharing your expertise about something, but they also build your authority on a topic.
Blogs can help you gain a loyal following if indeed you provide valuable information that your audience is interested in.
How to start a blog
The first step to take when starting your blog is to:
1. Choose a topic you're most interested in (and could see yourself writing about it for years to come). Even if you choose to hire writers later on, if the topic is of interest to you, you’ll commit to building your blog to its full potential. And best of all, if you do you could consider selling it in the future for a nice chunk of change ;).
2. Research the topic to see if there is opportunity to build a blog around it.
Choose your audience persona. This will ensure that you keep them in mind when writing your content. After all, you need to know who you’re speaking to so that you can create content that resonates with your chosen market. This will result in better engagement and better conversions leading to more leads and ultimately more sales!
3. If you see that you can angle your blog topic in a way that appeals to a market where there's demand and not much competition then go for it!
4. Research topic areas and keywords you'd like to rank for (choose ones you have a chance to rank in search. Thorough keyword research is critical to your blogging success!
5. Research the various ways you could earn income from your blog. Make sure that there are various ways that you can diversify your income within your niche. Having multiple income streams can be extremely beneficial if at some point you lose one income stream. Having more than one ensures you’ll be okay financially if one stream goes south.
5. Choose a name for your blog
6. Buy a domain name & choose a blog hosting company. (Note that some companies offer both).
7. Plan your blog layout and content plan. An editorial calendar will allow you to do this by scheduling your posts and topics of choice ahead of time. This will assist you in avoiding the dreaded writer’s block.
8. Start writing your content. Your content must be centered around the keywords that are topic areas where there is competition, but your market is lacking in how much of this information is available online. You want to be able to rank for this keyword so that you can gain traffic by being visible as one of the lead websites showing up on the first page of the Google search result rankings. So, you need to find high enough demand for a keyword, but low competition in terms of the number of websites writing about that keyword topic. This is one of the best ways to gain top search results and gain traffic results that will return new leads and sales.
9. Be sure to link out to helpful resources or people who you want to notice you by linking to their content. Also link to other helpful resources within your website so that your readers can engage more with your content and gain more insights. By linking within your site, the search engines love this as it shows you’re providing useful information. Over time, this will help to rank your site as an authority site within your market.
10. Edit your content before launch. Look for grammatical or spelling errors. Also be sure to read your content out loud to ensure there are no errors that you may have missed.
11. Sharing your content on social media sites like LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook just to name a few… The more you share, the more people you can help! Content distribution is just as important as your content creation, so don’t forget to share!
12.Keep in touch with the people who read your post and decided to get more information. How can they get more information from you, you ask? Have a CTA or a call-to-action for each post your write. This is an opt-in offer where your reader enters their name and email address to gain more information on the topic of your post. This will allow you to get in touch with this individual in the event that you have more information you want to share on the topic or you have an offer that you know they’d be interested in.
13. Listen to your audience and create content that answers their questions or addressing their concerns. Remember to take note of the language your audience is using in various places online like forums or on Facebook or Instagram. For example, people who are into journaling in notebooks, writing pretty quotes and stories about their daily lives and daily schedules also refer to journaling notebooks as bujo or bullet journals. So, if you were selling your own bullet journals, perhaps referring them as bujo’s would also allow you to gain more visibility in your market because you’re using the same keywords that they’re using when they communicate online about the topic of journaling.
By using the same keywords and acronyms etc. of your audience, tThis will ensure that the voice you’re writing in is relatable to them. Reading the comments section of each post or if you have that content on your YouTube channel or the channel of a competitor speaking of the same topic, are also places where you can more readily engage and convert your target audience!
14. Re-purpose your post on as many platforms as possible. But be sure that you’re posting on the platforms where you know your audience hangs out – whether doing a guest post on a related site or posting on YouTube, Twitter or Instagram (just to name a few) …
15.Check on your content over the months to ensure that nothing is outdated on any of your blog posts. You also want to ensure that all of the information is still relevant. If it isn’t, be sure to update it and write at the top of the post the date of the newest update. This shows your readers that you like to keep current and it also shows that you keep up-to-date with the industry facts and information.
16.Test, track and observe where you traffic is coming from and how they’re engaging with your content. There are many tools on the market. But one popular one which I’m sure you’re aware of is Google Analytics. It’s a free tool that allows website owners to see traffic stats and insights on where their traffic is coming from along with exact information on the demographics of their market.
17. Continue to plan out your content. Use an editorial calendar to help with this process. Not only does it keep you organized, but it also gives you greater scope in terms of the content you have now and plans for your blog content for the future.
Examining your analytics will allow you to make improvements for a better user experience, as well as make informed decisions about the direction of your business efforts!
By following the above points, you’ll have a much easier time planning out your blog. A plan of steps like the above is a great start to creating something that others will deem valuable.
If you want to find out more about blogging for your business, don’t hesitate to check out the resources available on this site (like these ideas for wellness posts) or get in touch. I’d love to hear from you!