ByWould you like to get started with a blog?
These days starting and running a blog is one of the simplest things to do. All you need is a domain name, hosting, and a blogging platform like WordPress, Joomla or Blogger. Once you have installed your blog you can start with posting new pages and articles and generate traffic to your blog.
You can then use your blog to generate leads, sell products, create advertising space or just gain some exposure.
Below are step by step points that will help you in get started with a blog:-
Setting up your blog:-
1. The first thing you need to do is buy a domain if you haven’t already got one. A good website for buying domains is Godaddy. Make sure you choose a unique domain, this could be your company name or something catchy. It could be based around the niche or topics you plan to post on your blog. Make sure you include keywords in this domain name.
Keep the length of the domain name to less than 25 words. Too many letters and words will make your domain hard to type in and this could also affect your search engine rankings.
2. After you get your domain name look for a good hosting service. Make sure you choose a good company like hostgator, as choosing the cheapest could affect the speed of your website. This can make it harder for visitors to use your website and it can also affect search engine rankings. Hostgator have a good service – I have tried them, their service and their speed is quite good.
If you have already got a website you can skip the above two steps and directly go to the third step of setting up your blog. You can have your blog setup under the same domain.
3. Setting up your blog is extremely easy. The first thing you need to do is choose a platform. You have got a wide variety of options. WordPress, Joomla and Blogger are a few. There are many more options. The best thing to do is look around on the internet and find your favourite blogs and find out what blogging platforms the owners are using and if they find these blogging platforms easy to use. I use wordpress for all my blogs as I find it extremely easy to use.
After setting up your blogging platform, install the appropriate plugins. Plugins help make blogging extremely simple, they help you do things you wouldn’t normally be able to do without any technical knowledge. After you have set up everything, you can start creating pages and adding new posts.
Create Content:-
After everything is setup you can start creating content.
1. Find out everything about your target audience. Find out what they like, what sort of problems do they have, what sort of content they are looking for, and how you can use your expertise to help solve their problems.
2. After you do your research you can start writing or hire someone to do your writing for you. After you finish writing them you can start posting content on your website on a regular basis. Make it a point to post content at least two to four times a week.
Promote Content:-
It doesn’t end with creating content. You need to promote it too. People won’t visit your website if they don’t know that you have written something that will help them, you got to inform them that there is content on your website, that they will find helpful and then and only then will they visit your website.
1. Share content on social media. Share your latest content on social media like facebook, twitter, Google+ and Linkedin. Also install social share buttons on your blog so that people who visit your website can easily share your content on their profiles with their friends and followers.
2. Get some SEO done. SEO can help your blog stand out from the thousands of other blogs on search engines. You can try it out by yourself or hire an SEO expert. SEO will help you land traffic to your site while you provide keyword rich content.
If you follow these tips regularly you should be able to generate leads or make money directly from your blog. One thing you need to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t give up and you need to be persistent, as blogging takes time to work. But if you keep producing quality content every week, you should soon be able to have a powerful blog.
Do you blog? Do you have any other blogging tips you would like to share with us? Please leave your comments in the comment box below.
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Mitt Ray is the CEO and Director of Social Marketing Writing and Imittcopy. He is also the author of the book Living With Ogres. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Linkedin.
