Top Blogging Tips for Beginners (That Work Really Well) In 2024

How to Start Blogging?

Before you build a blog website, some planning is needed to ensure you succeed in your mission. The first step in planning your blog is researching online blogging and how to start a blog to get all the information you need. The next step is to understand the objective of your blog, whether it is for fun, sharing knowledge, promoting a business, or making extra money online. Understanding your goal helps you make better decisions as you go ahead with the blog. The next step is to decide the blog niche or the primary blog topic which most of your content will focus upon. The final step is choosing an appropriate blog name aligned with your objective.    

Installing Essential Plugins

WordPress plugins can help you customize your blog to make it more visible online. Commonly used WordPress plugins are - 

• All-in-One SEO: It helps to optimize websites and rank higher in search engine results.
• MonsterInsights: This Google Analytics plugin can track blog traffic on your WordPress dashboard.
• WPForms: It enables you to add contact forms to help people get in touch with you.
• UpdraftPlus: It can restore your website if it gets hacked or goes down.
• WPRocket: It can boost the load of your website and improve performance.

Blogger Do’s and Don’ts

The General Do’s for Blogging:

• Be professional but also friendly
• Write posts with useful content for readers
• Use anecdotes and examples
• Only offer original content
• Use a catchy title
• Blog regularly

The General Don’ts of Blogging are:

• Drag a post unnecessarily
• Cover many topics at once
• Use too many style effects for the text
• Stuff keywords to target only the search engines
• Use other people's stuff without giving credit

Best Blogging Tips

1. Choose the Right Platform

When it comes to setting up your blog, you have two options. 

First, hosting your blog from your website. Although it means, you’ll have to wait to get your website up and running before you can start blogging, it gives you more domain authority and control over your blogging activities. 

Blogging from a freshly-minted site also means that you’ll have to slog harder to attract views and traffic. But the long-term payoffs are great. Businesses get 97% more links to their websites through blogging, and 68.5% of consumers feel that a blog lends credibility to a website. 

The second option is to blog through Medium, Facebook, LinkedIn, or even Instagram, which instantly gets your blogs out there in front of millions of readers. Medium alone has nearly 100 million monthly readers, and unlike other social media platforms, people hang around here to exclusively read. The only — and potentially big — downside is that it leaves less ownership and control in your hands.

The good news, however, is that you can set up a blog on your own domain and simultaneously cross-post your content on a third-party platform like Medium to take advantage of its huge audience.

The next blogging tip is to understand your audience.

2. Know Your Audience Well

Knowing your audience is vital for successful blogging in 2021. For one, content saturation is a real challenge. Everyone is bombarded by an overwhelming amount of blogs, which makes it hard for your content to stand out. And it’s only getting harder. As we’re writing this, 4.3 million blog posts have already been written. Within the next 24 hours, there will be millions more. 

So, in order to stand a chance at attracting your audience’s attention, you need to know them really well. Don’t stop at just knowing who your ideal customer is. Dig deeper to find out where they hang out, what apps they use, what questions are they asking, what interests them, and so on. 

The next blogging tip is to write unique topics

3. Write on Unique Topics That Your Customers are Interested In

Don’t fall into the trap of writing what everyone’s writing. It might seem easier to follow your competitor’s footsteps and selecting the topics that they are blogging about. While that’s not a bad strategy, it’s not a super effective one either. 

To really touch the nerve of what’s bugging your audience and the information they are searching for, scour niche communities. Tap into forums, niches, and platforms that they may frequent. 

Places like Reddit, Quora, Facebook, and LinkedIn groups, as well as other relatively lesser-known niche social network platforms, are a goldmine of targeted audience groups who may be talking specifically about what you have to offer. Spending time on these sites can give you a ton of unique content ideas to hook your audience with. 

 The next blogging tip is to have an editorial calendar.

4. Have an Editorial Calendar

Consistency is the key to blogging. To see real results with blogging, it’s essential to get people to come back and read your blog again and again. Posting regularly and according to a schedule helps you achieve this. Posting fresh content on a regular basis also helps improve your search engine rankings.  

One of the best ways to stay on track with a regular posting schedule is to maintain an editorial or content calendar. You can be as detailed or as minimal as you want — download a free content calendar template or get started with a barebones excel spreadsheet. Just remember to post at least once or twice a week.

The next blogging tip is to use visuals and videos.

5. Use Visuals and Videos

Visuals enhance the appeal and engagement factor of your blogs. On average, blog posts with images get 94% more views better than text-only posts. 

Including videos in your blogs gives people their favorite type of content to consume and allows you to communicate your messages that much more effectively. You could post a how-to video, an explainer video, or a video offering a sneak peek at some fun, behind-the-scenes moments. Not only can this help differentiate your blog from the rest but also allows your reader to relate to your brand on a more human level.

The next blogging tip is to choose the right length and formatting.

6. Choose the Right Length and Formatting 

While there’s no rule set in stone as to how long or short your blog posts should be, research shows that blog articles of 2,000+ words are far more likely to show better results. Writing a longer piece just for the sake of length is never a good idea, but if a topic calls for depth, give it depth.

Also, prior to getting down to the actual writing, consider these stats that throw some light on formatting styles that win people’s favor: 

• 36% of readers prefer list-based headlines
• 43% of readers admit to just skimming the blogs
• Only 29% of readers take the time to carefully read through posts, so use bullet points and section headers to make it easier for them
• Headlines that are 6-13 words’ long fetch the maximum amount of traffic

7. The Best Blogging Tip Ever: Give it time 

Blogging is not an overnight success. It takes time and effort to see results. In fact, it could be months before your hard work pays off. So the sooner you get started, the better. But once your blog takes off, there are tons of benefits to it. Aside from being an avenue to grow your sales and earn more money, blogging can help you establish yourself as an influencer attracting many more professional opportunities along the way. 

Blogging Tips for Beginners 

• Create Blog Posts That Serve Your Larger Company Goals

Remember that the blog posts you create are not intended for you to read. Ideas must not be random but always align with the company's goals for growth. You must position your content around your audience and how you can solve their problems. Your posts must address specific issues and concerns of the potential readers.      

• Identify What Resonates With Your Audience

Your blog content must resonate with the audience to generate leads, traffic, and sales. Therefore, your content must speak to the audience based on their challenges, pains, and goals. To achieve this, you must first define the buyer persona and things that matter to them and choose topics that speak directly to the target audience. 

• Write Like You Talk

A blog post must not be as cold or stiff as a white paper. Most of the people who see your blog post may only read some of it. So, to keep them interested in your content, you must keep your writing style effortless, engaging, and conversational. Personable content helps you connect with real people instead of robots.

• Brainstorm Evergreen Topics

Trendy or current topics may seem perfect for blog content, but you must know that they will become outdated soon. Hence, you must prioritize evergreen content that will not become irrelevant soon. Evergreen topics have a more significant reach and can make you brainstorm several smaller ideas. 

• Hone in Your Point

Refrain from straying from the main topic of your blog. Although you can bring a part of your personality to the blog, they must not bury the point you are driving home. If you dwell too much on analogies and personal experiences, readers may retain patience and stay on your page.

• Narrow Down Your Angles

It is common for new bloggers to write on broad topics, but focusing on nuances and details in these topics is wiser. Moreover, specific topics can attract more targeted, niche audiences that are more likely to convert to leads and customers. Begin with a clear, concise idea and write specialized content. 

• Niche Posts Should Still Tie Into the Bigger Picture

While it is critical to understand your reader's struggles and pain points, you must also know what they will need to get them resolved. You must know the challenges and consequences they are facing, what is at stake, and what they will gain by taking action. If you incorporate these things into your content, readers will get the signal that you understand their problem and are trying to help.

• Structure Your Post

Most people will only scan your blog posts and not read them, so it needs to be organized very well. You can structure your blog post with an outline, template, and section headers. You can use the template based on the type of blog post you will write. Then you can write the design from which you can build sections and write the content. You can include paragraph breaks, titled sections, images, and neat formatting to help readers quickly find the information they are looking for. 

• Give Your Audience Something to Walk Away With

Cover concrete information instead of vague concepts in your blog post. Including actionable steps can help your blog stand out in Google search results. The key objective of content creation is that your readers must take away something useful from your blog. After reading your blog post, the reader must know how to implement an idea or learn the steps to achieve success. 

• Use Data and Research to Back up the Claims You Make in Your Posts

Do not use data as evidence but utilize data and research to back up the claims made in your blog posts. Secondly, claims and arguments are more coercive when supported by research and statistical data. Data-driven content attracts people's attention more than fluffy statements.   

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Conclusion 

In conclusion, blogging is essential for a successful digital marketing strategy. The tips outlined in this article can help bloggers improve their craft and reach a wider audience. By following these guidelines, bloggers can create engaging and informative content that will drive traffic to their sites and ultimately drive conversions. For those looking to take their digital marketing skills to the next level, the IMT Ghaziabad Digital Marketing Program by Simplilearn is a great option. This comprehensive program provides hands-on training in digital marketing, including blogging. So, if you're ready to become a top-notch blogger and take your digital marketing skills to the next level, enroll in the IMT Ghaziabad Digital Marketing Program today!

FAQs 

1. What makes a blog successful?

You must choose a topic and stick to it, write consistently, and target the niche audience to make your blog successful. 

2. Do you have any advice for new bloggers?

• Research your audience
• Get inspiration online
• Structure your blogs
• Use strategic keywords 

3. What skills do bloggers have?

• SEO knowledge
• Content writing skills 
• Communication skills
• Social media skills
• Design skills

4. What are the three 3 essential elements of blogging?

The essential elements of blogging are:

• Catchy headlines
• Useful headings
• Appealing images
• Powerful CTA
• Inter-linking
• Engaging content