Blog Writing

Blog writing a way of creating a personal blog on the web to share your knowledge and information about a specific subject or range of subjects. It is also understood as blogging that revolves around obtaining a website and publishing original content on it.

For example, a marketing and business management blogger can simply buy a domain name and build the website to run his or her blog. Even if you want to write your first blog, but you do not have any knowledge of HTML, you may create your blog using sites like WordPress which will simplify the web design, publishing, and customization process of your blog.

What is Blog Writing?

Blog writing is the process of writing a blog post in which ‘blog’ refers to a type of website that constitutes mainly written content. Blogging is a process through which writers create content based on their thoughts or information.

In this age of content, blogging seems like an excellent opportunity for a writer, to start experimenting with their writing skills. From authoring online journals to sharing thoughts about a particular subject, all comes under blogging.

Why Write a Blog Post?

If writing is a passion of an individual, blogging can be a good idea for sharing knowledge and thoughts with others. However, other than the passion, the following can be the reasons to start writing a blog:

1. Sharing stories or thoughts

When an individual starts a blog, he/she gets a platform through which he/ she can share thoughts or stories. Blogging gives you a voice and a platform that allows you to get heard. The most common way that a blogger adopts is building a diary. Here, they can write about their lives, friends, or any personal experience.

2. Earning money without going anywhere

The most potent reason for starting a blog is to earn money by sitting at home. Blogging can give a passive income to an individual. The most famous bloggers earn a good amount of money from their content. Even a part-time blogger can make a nice profit from his content. In blogging, you have to spend few hours making the content for your blog. After which, you can make a profit from that content.

3. Recognition

Yes, blogging can give you recognition in this field. When you post unique content on your blogs and gain experience in this field, you may become an expert in this field. Many bloggers are considered an expert in blogging. This happens because of their skills and content. So, with a successful blog, you can earn recognition for yourself and your organization.

4. Connecting with people who have the same thoughts

Blogging can help you to connect with people that share the same interest and thoughts as yours. When you post content on your blog, usually people comment on those posts. This social interaction can help you find a community of people who share the same interest in blogging.

Writing a blog post is not some rocket science. But to start a blog, the first thing that one needs to know is – how to start a blog?

How to Start a Blog Post?

1. Select a Domain Name

The first step towards establishing a blog is selecting a URL and buying it to make the blog online. With a URL or a domain name, readers can find the blog online. One cannot use a URL or a domain name that is already in use.

Such occurrences create a problem for a writer as it is not easy to come up with a URL or domain name suitable for one’s blog.

2. Purchase a Hosting Package

To get one’s blog available online, one needs to purchase hosting packages from Web Hosts. Web Hosts are companies that take care of all the technical parts concerned with establishing one’s blog online. These companies ensure that one’s site appears when someone puts in the URL or domain name.

3. Install a blogging platform

To start a blog, one needs to install a blogging platform. Blogging Platform enables one to design the site by choosing themes and headers. It also makes one’s blog available to many readers, as there are several communities present on the platform.

4. Select a Blog Theme and Header

Blogging Platforms provides an array of themes to select from. The selection of a piece depends totally on the needs and wants of a writer. It depends on how writers picture their blogs.

For the header part, one would require the help of graphic designers, or some existing themes and plugins can also help them in the process.

5. Set up Blog pages

Before initiating writing, one needs to put up some static pages. And these pages include-

• About- this page provides basic information about the writer and blog.
• Contact – A writer looking for business should never forget to include contact details.
• Portfolio – Writers trying to attract business should flaunt their works to grab the attention of readers.

After completion of the setting up part, one needs to focus on the writing part of blogging. Freelancers or agencies can only optimize their growth and make profits if they show promising performances.

By following some ground rules, one can craft a content-rich blog post, their blogs. A list of such basic steps are enlisted below –

How to Write a Good Blog to Rank in Search Engines

When you write a great post by making them search-engine friendly with the right word count and on-site and off-site optimization then such posts have greater chances of being popular posts. Let us have a look at some of the tips to search engine optimize your blog-

1. Put together a head-turning headline

Headline acts as the face of one’s blog post. So the headline should be able to grasp the attention of readers. To sketch out such a juicy headline, one can follow steps like –

• Establish the headline first and then knit the content around it and not the other way around.
• Ensure that the post contains the content that has been promised in the headline. Readers should not be deceived.
• Keep the headline concise and trim out the excess words. The headline should provide a hint of what’s inside the blog and not tell the whole story.
• Learn to keep the headline short and straightforward.

2. Retain attention with the introduction

Headlines do the job of luring in readers, but to keep them captivated, one needs to craft an exciting introduction. To conjure up an exciting introduction that would retain the attention of readers, one can follow some methods like –

• Try to write the introduction from a reader’s point of view. Slip into their shoes to look at the world through their glasses.
• Make the content more interactive by including questions.
• Keep the introduction short and simple by getting rid of unnecessary words.

3. Provide an easily acceptable but hard to overlook content

After the introduction, one needs to provide the readers with content that was promised in the headline. It is the part where writers flaunt their writing skills to draw in business and readers. Deliver a well-written blog post, and readers will look forward to future updates. To deliver such a captivating post, one can refer to some steps, like-

• The addition of sub-headings to content can aid readers in spotting the information they require.
• Ensure that the content is consistent and is created by following a single format.
• Readers cannot overlook unique content. Ensure that the content stands out in the crowd.
• Holding the interest of readers, starting from introduction to conclusion, can be a tough job. So a writer should always draft a strong introduction and conclusion.

4. Focus on 1–2 long-tail keywords

You need to use long-tail keywords as per the intent of your target reader to make your blog a good blog.

Do not stuff keywords in your blog post, instead your post should answer the intent of your visitors and that is why organic inclusion of long-tail keywords is important.

5. Include primary keyword in specific parts of your post

Now that you have your long-tail keywords, you should incorporate one or two keywords in the specific parts of your blog post.

You can include your primary keyword in-

• Title Tag
• Headers & Body
• URL
• Meta Description

6. Make sure your blog is responsive and mobile-friendly

When you make your blogs responsive, your blogs will easily open on mobile phones as well as computers.

Google also gives priority to mobile-friendly search results.

7. Optimize the meta description and use all the space

The meta descriptions of your blogs would also appear in SERPs.

You should also optimize them when you write a blog post to make your posts search engine as well as user friendly.

8. Optimize your images with image alt text

Blog posts should also have images, as they assist in explaining and supporting the content.

Plus, search engines do not look at the images, instead, they read the alt text. So, while writing a blog, you should use Alt text to optimize it for search engines.

9. Use URL structures that help your visitors

The URL structure of your blog pages needs to be easy for your visitors for understanding the structure of your website.

Google also favors blog page URLs that make it easy for them and website visitors to understand.

In addition to these, when you write a blog post, you should link internally when possible. Using a Google Search Console, topic clusters, bullet points and regularly creating and publishing evergreen blog posts are some of the other tips to make your blog or article SEO friendly.

How to Promote Great Blog Posts

In blog writing, an individual is required to make all decisions, whether it’s related to the content or design of the blog. Every detail of the blog should be in such a way that it attracts readers. An individual should know how to maintain a blog and promote a blog. If you want to promote your blog for earning better money, then you can use the following tips:

1. Use Social Media

Make use of social media. Post your blog links on social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or any other social site.

You may use a social automation tool that helps you share and manage all your social media accounts from one dashboard.

2. Use the Comment Section of other blogs

You might use the comment section of other blogs for promoting your blog.

You can introduce yourself in that comment section, and sometimes, some bloggers allow you to leave your blog link as well.

3. Reply to your readers

If you are getting comments on your post, make a reply to the visitors and make them feel that you care and appreciate their visit to your post.

You have to keep in mind that replying to your readers will ultimately engage your audiences and they would want to know more about your thoughts.

4. Collaborate with other bloggers

Collaborating with big or other bloggers can be a good idea for you.

These kinds of collaborations generally include guest posting, promoting each other’s blog, and activities like these.

5. Keep posting regularly

Make sure you are posting on a regular basis. If you do not post regularly, then there are high chances that your visitors will forget about you easily.

When your audiences know that you post regularly, they want to read your views and thoughts about the latest trends and topics in your niche.

6. Re-purpose and update your blog

In re-purposing, you need to re-imagine your top posts into other forms of content.

You may re-purpose your blog into an infographic, podcast, a video for YouTube, presentation on Slide-share, PDF, etc. You may add CTAs to convert readers into leads or update your post.

You can include an online course in your blog for readers and ask them to sign up, or you may offer a free e-book. It optimizes your blog traffic and engagement rate. Make sure that your blogs are search engine optimized. This will help you a lot.

7. Build links to your site

Building organic links is one of the key practices to promote blogs. In case you want to rank on Google, you should want to invest in link-building practices.

When you build links to your site, it helps your site to have a good, successful, and long-term SEO strategy to enjoy an optimized presence in the Search Engine Result Pages.

8. Create a UTM link to track marketing campaigns

When you add UTM links to your blogs, it will add some code to the end of your post URL. This process eases down the monitoring and tracking of your marketing campaigns on Google Analytics.

Even just using Google Analytics will let you have some simple metrics to know from where your traffics are coming to your websites, but with the help of UTM links, you will have the ability to go through a detailed result that will alleviate the process of tracking exact content driving the traffic.

In addition to this, using a custom link management tool or URL shortener can also help you in tracking your links. In case you plan and organize your blog ahead of time on the grounds of which posts you want to drive for a particular sort of marketing campaign then you may also opt for adding assign priority UTM links to those.

9. Answer questions on Quora

To get started with answering on Quora, your answers should offer value to your audiences. Quora is best for engaging with the right people who could be your target audiences.

New bloggers should always make Quora account to answer questions of their niche. Here you need to understand that just copy-pasting your blog URL into your Quora answer will not favor you. Your answers should help your reader right away.

10. Post on subreddits

Sub-reddits on Reddit are considered one of the best places for sharing your knowledge with the audience of your niche. If Quora is your step 1 of sharing knowledge, posting on subreddits can your step 2.

Here you can find topics in which you can join and add to the conversation. It will let you share your post and build your influence.

11. Flip posts to Flip-board

You can use this social network site which is quite useful in aggregating news from the web and storing it on its cloud for readers.

Here you can flip your blog posts to Flipboard. It can be quite useful in driving traffic to your blog.

12. Reach out to influencers

You should also try to reach out to influencers in your niche, as it offers one of the most amazing opportunities to promote your blog.

You should build relationships with the influencers to get an influencer to say yes to your outreach email. You may try to link to influencers’ blogs or social media sites in your blog posts, as this will be quite effective in forming a relationship with them.

Trying to nurture this relationship, in the long run, is a pro tip here. You should also verify emails, as this is one of the most effective ways of optimizing your email delivery rate for an outreach campaign.

14. Guest post on popular blogs

Despite being one of the oldest methods for promoting blogs, guest posting is still quite effective and popular.

In this, bloggers can give backlinks to their blogs from a top-rated site.

15. Network on related or similar blogs

Developing a network on related or similar blogs is again an effective way to optimize the presence and rank your blogs. You may leave a comment on another blog, as this will help you to get on the radar of other bloggers in your niche.

This way you will be able to cultivate relationships in your community. It will popularize your name in your target market without spending any money.

16. Use heat maps

With the help of a website heat map, you will be able to review user engagement on a page-by-page level.

Heat maps are understood as one of the best visual ways to get data and insights that can be used to improve the experience of your users, as heat maps suggest which features users engage with.

Heat maps show different elements such as what pages users click on or where they scroll or where they choose to exit or what content they prefer looking at, etc.

17. Leverage SEO tools to audit and monitor blog performance

You can use different SEO tools for analyzing your website performance.

Tools can also help you in identifying areas for improvement of your website. You should use tools to optimize for both users and search engines alike.

Wrap Up!

After going through the steps mentioned above, one might think that blog writing is a lengthy and complex affair. Setting up a blog may involve some technical processes, but writing is entirely up to a writer.

People can earn, grow business as well as fulfill their passion for writing through blogging.

What niche would you like to choose for your blogging debut? Share your topics or your doubts with us in the comment section below.