Setting up a blog can be scary. There are millions of blogs in the world. Besides, there many other websites, forums and social media platforms that are competing for attention. You may also struggle with the feeling that you’re creating a blog on a topic that has already been heavily blogged about. Let’s not even talk about the failure rate of blogs.
However, all successful blogs started from scratch. The bloggers had a vision, and they kept at it. Eventually, they became the giant blogging experts that you know and love.
How do you set up a blog like the pros? Here’s how the big boys and girls do it.
Mix up passion and profit
What’s your mission? Why do you want to start a blog?
A lot of people still get it wrong and start a blog for the wrong reasons. Below are some examples of blogs that fail:
- A blog about your personal day to day life: Unless you’re a public figure or a celebrity like the Kardashians, no one really wants to know what happens in your daily life. Do that in social media.
- Personal opinions: You may have some of the best opinions on different things happening. Still, unless you’re a public figure, very few people may follow your content. Especially if you discuss things that most people are not really concerned about.
- A confused blog: We’ve all seen blogs that don’t really make sense. It is a mixture of poems, tips, videos and images on different topics and niches, all in one blog.
There are so many other examples of poor blogs, but you get the drift now, right?
Your blog should have a mission. It should help solve a problem that many people suffer from. It should be on a specific, profitable niche.
Setting up the blog
How do the experts do their actual blog set up?
Here is how to set up the blog from scratch:
- Register a great domain name. Make sure it’s unique and catchy. It’s best to have something that people can always remember.
- Choose a fantastic web host. There are many web hosts around. The pros always check latest reviews from different sources before settling on their preferred web host.
- Install WordPress. Whenever you hear the name “blog” know that the word “WordPress” will feature somewhere. This is a great, free blogging software that is used by most professionals. You can get the WordPress installation procedure from your web host’s knowledgebase. It’s so easy that you’ll be done in a matter of minutes.
Once you’ve done the above, you’ll have your blog ready. That’s not really where the work is, for you to become an expert, you need to strictly follow the tips below.
Have a catchy design
A guru’s blog looks like a guru’s blog. Think about it. If you buy a bad car, there are high chances that the car will have poor features and a generally poor design. Top-of-the-range cars have a neat design. They simplify and enhance the driving experience.
For your site to look professional, you need a great design that will wow your visitors. It should be easy to navigate, neat and very clear. Below are some factors that contribute to a great design:
- An outstanding theme: Depending on your budget, install a great theme. You can get awesome free themes. However, for the best experience, consider buying one. You can also get a designer to create for you a custom theme.
- Useful plugins: Plugins will help improve the outlook and overall usability of your website. Some useful plugins that will still affect your design include social sharing plugins, lead generation plugins and image optimization plugins among others.
- Fonts: Yes, nowadays fonts are important for the general look of your blog. Most people just skim through content and open a couple of tabs before they start reading. If they find your font too complex or too tiny, they may close your tab and read from another site. Choose fonts wisely.
- Text blocks: This is also not up to your web designer, but up to you. Make sure you don’t have so many huge paragraphs and text blocks in your blog. Have short sentences and short paragraphs of 1 to 4 lines.
Epic content
Your audience will only consider you an expert if you have epic content. As stated above, you’re not just creating a blog for the sake of it. You probably want to become an industry leader in a specific topic, right? Your content is what will make you special.
Epic content is content that will provide a solution to a problem. Picture a visitor coming to your site with a deep issue and leaving it relieved with a great solution. They will be happy to come back again and again whenever they have issues on your niche.
Make sure you use different content forms to ensure your audience properly consumes it, despite their increasingly short attention span and cut-throat competition from other websites. Apart from text, include images, infographics, videos and even podcasts. This way, your audience gets solutions delivered to them exactly how they want it.
Don’t forget to heavily market your website, also in multiple ways. Some of the methods that work include email marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media marketing, forum posting, video marketing, mobile marketing and joint ventures among others.
Experts keep getting droves of traffic to their websites every minute. They keep getting leads and converting them into sales. They remain respected and grab all the best awards. They always keep in step with the latest blogging trends. If you really want to build a successful blog, follow these tips and do it as the experts do.