New to Blogging? This is How to Get Started in 2020
Back in 1994, blogging started as way of sharing personal thoughts and feelings with others before evolving into the powerful information communication channel it has become today. Now it seems every Tom, Dick, Harry and their dog has a blog. Blogging can serve various functions for the blogger, but one of its most useful applications is to help businesses grow. A quality blog does this by generating leads, promoting the brand’s value and expertise, and improving website ranking on search engines.
Below are some tips on how to get your blog rolling ̶
but remember, there is no substitute for quality content directly relevant to your target audience. Informative, insightful, engaging posts are ultimately going to be what keep your audience coming back for more, and giving value to your audience returns value to your business in a whole host of ways.
With so many resources on the internet, it’s hard to know where exactly to start with blogging. So, without further ado, here is a a quick-start guide to blogging in 2020.
Motive
The first step is to identify your motive--the reason why you want to start blogging. The questions below can help you identify what your reason for writing is, which in turn will help to narrow your focus and create content driven towards results:
- Do you have a cause you’d like to help forward?
- Would you like to showcase your product or services to potential customers?
- Are you planning to use your platform to keep your existing followers updated about your brand?
- Are you planning to build a fanbase for your brand to help start a buzz about it?
- Do you have a specific message or idea to raise awareness of?
- Some combination of the above?
Platform
There are various platforms to get yo' blog on. WordPress has 63% market share, and is the most popular content management system around. GitHub is the cheapest to get started on, and also the easiest to get to grips with. Do a little research and aim to choose a good platform for your niche.
Hosting and Domain Name
Hosting is basically storing information, which you’re gonna need to do. Your host is the server which contains all your content. Bluehost is a great platform to start with, and works well with WordPress. Your domain name is the name of your website. You need to choose this carefully as it will define the keywords of your blog. When starting out, a service such as Name Cheap can be helpful in choosing and registering your domain name. For more on web hosting and domains, check out webhostingsecretsrevealed.net
Designing Your Blog
Content is not the only thing used to grab the eye of your reader. Great design can be just as compelling as great content when it comes to reelin' em in. Once you’re done with all the steps above focus on designing your blog. If you are not a good designer or are unfamiliar with WordPress designing tools, it’s a good idea to find someone else who can do the designing for you. Fiverr is a good place to start if you’re on a tight budget, but with a caveat—oftentimes it’s true what they say, you get what you pay for. Your design should help tell the story of your blog or brand, so make sure you know what this is before enlisting a designer.
Blog Content A quick word about the content, too. Of course it’s possible to write it all yourself. It’s possible to fix your own car, or plant your own vegetables, with some patience, understanding, and most importantly trial and error. However, if you’re worried about making mistakes, looking to optimise your content for maximum impact, or speed up the whole process of growing your online presence and fanbase, you’d be better off enlisting a blog writing service.
Remember to start cheap and grow with time. Post frequently and pack your posts with quality. Aim to create a community
How We Can Help
It doesn’t take an expert to put words on a page, but want to maximise the impact and conversion rate from that content? Here’s where we excel. The benefits of choosing a professional writing service like Pen and a Pad are as follows:
- Spelling and grammar mistakes put off customers. An analysis of website sales figures shows this is to no small degree. The analysis points to a single spelling mistake causing a cut in sales of as much as 50%. We parse all content we create for you in-house, using our professional proofreaders and editors. This way, we ensure your content is fine-tuned and error-free.
- Well-written content makes readers spend more time on your site, building brand familiarity and reputation. More expertly-crafted content means more sales.
- Out-of-date blogs make prospective customers think your company is out-of-date or even defunct. Keeping up a blog over time can be challenging, time-consuming, and coming up with new ideas all the time is a pain. Our writers are experts who specialise in many different industries. We never run out of ideas for content, so if you don’t know what to blog about, why not ask us to curate your content—topic and all.
Want to know more about how we can help you? Contact us.
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