5 Things to Consider Before Starting a Blog

There are so many reasons why one would want to start a blog. First of all, it’s a great way to attract a loyal audience. Aside from this, it can help you establish authority within your chosen niche, create new business opportunities, meet people, or just tell your story.

Still, having a reason for creating a blog and knowing how to do so are not the same thing. With this in mind and without further ado, here are five things you need to consider before starting a blog.

Finding the right topic

Before you even start planning out the technical aspect of your blog, you need to decide what topic you are going to write about. This will determine many things, like an adequate theme and the best voice for your audience.

Sure, for those starting a business blog, the topic needs to be the one related to your business niche – but you can always go a bit more specific and establish yourself as an authority in a particular field of the industry.

For those unable to make a decision, keep in mind that the fact other people are making money with a particular topic doesn’t mean you could easily do the same.

Also, the fact that you are passionate about a topic doesn’t mean your audience will follow in your footsteps.

Lastly, diversify (but not too much) seeing how you don’t want your blog to lose its focus.

Choosing the right platform

Once you decide on the best blog theme, it’s time to choose the most suitable platform for the job. You have quite a few choices ranging from Blogger, Tumblr, Squarespace and Wix – but none of these can stand its ground against WordPress.

This amazing Content Management System (CMS) is used to run about 28 percent of the entire internet and is a decisive winner when it comes to both user-and beginner-friendliness.

Even though it has a beginner-friendly learning curve, it is always a good idea to contact experienced WordPress web developers to help you polish and customize it according to your needs.

Writing quality content is all but easy

Regardless how good your digital marketing strategy is, at the end of the day it will all come down to your content. With this in mind, everyone online has an agenda, starting with your visitors.

Some of them are browsing in order to find something interesting to read, while others are looking for a specific piece of information, a detailed tutorial or a review of a product/event that belongs to your niche.

Needless to say, these audiences need to find what they are looking for. Focus on creating content that brings value to your audience or look for someone else to do this for you. A rule of thumb is to always solve a problem your audience may be experiencing, no matter how minor.

Visual content is huge

Did you know that over half of your site’s audience don’t bother to read past an article’s headline?

That being said, encourage them to at least click the article through a wide range of headline copywriting hacks. Once you have their attention, keep them engaged through the use of visual stimulus.

Start by looking for images that are closely related to the content at hand and add them next to the text. If this doesn’t work, you can always try to enhance your content with a pie chart or even an elaborate infographic.

Finally, with those who have a bit more “director” in them, making a video is also a highly effective way for your voice to be heard. Whatever works for you.

Suggested places to get started:

Pixabay.com
Canva – Infographic creator
YouTube (remember, you can always embed someone else’s video).

You might need some help

Running a blog is similar to running a business, so you may have a compulsive need to micro-manage everything. Once it starts growing, you will no longer be able to do so, which means that you could rely on someone else to help carry the load.

Either hire a virtual assistant to help you with an administrative part of the job, or simply look for someone to write (at least partially) on your behalf.

Collaborating with contributors can indeed become life-saving, but make sure to check their portfolio beforehand and closely monitor their work to make sure your blog’s content is still of adequate quality.

In conclusion

Unfortunately, no article would be elaborate enough to truly detail everything that goes into blogging (long-term).

Nevertheless, for those willing to test their skills, the above can give you a starting point by helping you realize what to expect as your blog matures.

Best of luck!