At first glance, starting a blog seems like a pretty easy process that doesn’t take much thought. Just sign-up on a free site, write up a few quick blurbs, and watch as your page pulls in loads of traffic, right? While this might sound great, it is unfortunately far from the truth. The reality of the situation is that if you want to see your blog flourish and grow, you’re going to need to put in some serious effort and approach the process with the right mindset. With these tips to help guide you along the way, you can start your journey toward a healthy and prosperous blog right away.
Nail Down a Theme
Professional writers Joshua Fields Milburn & Ryan Nicodemus at The Minimalists offer up some great information on starting a blog for your marketing operations. Before settling on anything else, having a strong theme for your content and visuals is the most important part of the process. Without this kind of direction, expecting a positive reaction is essentially just wishful thinking. Whether you want to be a thought leader in your industry, or simply offer insight into how your products and services handle the daily issues faced by your consumers, having a unified theme goes a long way in the world of blogging.
Pick the Right Platform
Once you have your theme and general direction for content on target, picking the right platform is the next step, according to online magazine Rookie. As the article notes, several options can serve as a suitable foundation for your blog. Blogger and Wordpress.com are popular selections for those who are unfamiliar with web scripts like HTML. If you have a little more expertise, the Wordpress.org alternative offers more customization for those who can handle the higher technological burden.
Incorporate Social Media
In many ways, blogging is a very social experience. So social, in fact, that this activity shares some serious synergy with Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks. Robert Ambrogi, a blogging and legal expert, suggests on his page that new bloggers embrace the social aspect of the process to help foster the growth of their viewership. This means creating social network accounts that support your blog page, replying to comments, reaching out through email and even visiting other related blogs to help promote discussion on these sites. Becoming an active contributor in these arenas can help push traffic back to your blog and build a sustainable audience of browsers.
Take Note of What Your Audience Wants
Part of sustaining this aforementioned audience means taking note of what these viewers want out of your blog, according to the experts at Buffer. As you post more and more content, consider the feedback in the comments section, as well as the on-site activity the viewers. If certain posts or subjects naturally generate more excitement, pushing your blog in that direction may be the right strategy. Failing to do this, and losing sight of the point of your blog, can disenfranchise your readers and lead to a blog that never lives up to its potential.As you can see, starting up a blog does require some serious work and preparation. Nailing down a great theme and concept, as well as picking the right publishing platform, gets the process rolling. From here, reaching out to your audience via social media, while also taking into consideration the feedback from these readers, can help you grow your viewership at a healthy pace. With these tips in hand, you’ll be on your way to a prosperous and popular blog in no time.
