Monday 5 November 2012

Basic Blogging Guide For Beginners

Blogging Tips for Beginners

Starting a blog of your own is very easy, but continuing with the blog to achieve new heights is a different thing. As a hobby you can write a few posts and a hundred people will read your blog daily. That is easy. But if you are really passionate about blogging and want a successful blog, then remember: 'It is not that easy.' 

I said not that easy but I would never say very hard. Why? Because if you are really interested in blogging and can afford to give hours to your new blog, then for you, this can be very easy too! From my experience, I can say that my first blog took good enough time to establish as a successful one, but because I was working hard on it from the very first day, I was able to get at good height of success. 

And I am still working to achieve more. This is the first step towards a successful blog- Always work smart in a positive direction. And never sit idle after achieving something. Target for more and one day you will surely get more. 

If you are thinking of making your own blog, then here is some basic stuff you should read well before leaping into the world of blogging.

Platform 

First you should decide which blogging platform would be best for you. Blogger and Wordpress are the two most famous blogging platforms and they both are free. If you are completely new with blogging, then I would recommend to start with Blogger because of its simplicity. Both of my blogs run on Blogger and I am happy with it. 

Topic and Content

Next, you should decide what would be your content. It can be anything like Tech, News, Blogging, Automobiles, Games, Archive, Photo Gallery or anything else whatever is in your mind. You should keep in mind that you should write about that one specific topic only. It is better if you write a blog with a targeted topi, this helps in getting more audience from Google and other search engines. 

And it is not good to write about multiple topics at once. Eg: Weight loss tips+ latest laptop price+ Gaming accessories+etc. These types of blogs are usually facing failure. So it is your first step to success to decide a topic you can write about. Also you should write good quality content that your readers will find useful. 

SEO

SEO stands for 'Search Engine Optimisation'. What is it? You know Google, Bing, etc are search engines. Methods that help you get more traffic from them is called SEO. 

How? 

SEO Robot
SEO helps you get a better rank in these search engines. Rank decides where will your site be shown on the SERP- Search Engine Result Page. Imagine you are searching on Google about 'buying a home theater'. You see many results on the 1st page of Google. Most of us don't go further upto 2nd or 3rd page. So if your blog is on 4th Page, you will lose most of your audience. 

There is a competition between the best sites to get on the first page. So here comes SEO. 

SEO will help you get a better rank and thus help you to come to 1st page. But in a nutshell, SEO doesn't guarantee success. The first step towards SEO is CONTENT. The blogs and websites with the best content usually get to the top of SERPs without any other special efforts. After content, there are many small steps for SEO which you should consider. When you start your blog, the thing with the most priority must be- 'Content, content and content'.

It is good if you start working on SEO right from the first day of your blog. But for those beginners who do not understand a single word about SEO, you should wait for some time. After you have established a blog with a good 5 posts, then you should start learning about SEO. SEO does not require all of your efforts and time, but with a good combination of techniques you can achieve the best rank on Google also! A search on Google about 'SEO Tips' will give you links to some of the best sites offering help on SEO. 

Some of the SEO tips you should consider are- keyword density, meta tags, SERP optimisation, backlinks, etc. Once you fall in the ocean of blogging, you will find many other important SEO methods. 

The SEO Robot - Image credit: David DeHetre (Creative Commons)

Social Media 

When you start writing a blog, side by side you should also promote it through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the best one according to me- Google Plus. This will increase your number of audience and your blog would spread across the world. There are many gadgets made by these social networking sites which you can use in your blog and watch your blog grow. 

Reading other blogs for inspiration

The best way to learn more would be to learn by observing well established blogs of the same topic as your blog. This would give you inspiration and new ideas for your blog. 

Also a good looking theme is must for your blog. From my experience white themes work better than dark ones, because they are easier to read by everyone, but it depends on your blog topic. 

Try and Try! 

Keep experimenting and you will find new and better ways of building a successful blog on your own. Experimenting is the key to success. 

In the end, here are links to some of the great sites I consider as inspiration and you should also consider bookmarking them:


And remember: Hard work is the key to success! 

Over to you!

Are you a new blogger?

Or are you just going to start your own blog very soon? 

Or are you already a blogger looking for some basic tips? If you liked the article, then please give some time to share it. And do subscribe to our blog's newsletter to receive latest updates on blogging tips.