5 Things To Remember When Starting Your Own Blog

Heed our advice before you dive headfirst into the world of blogging.
Blogging is huge. Hundreds of thousands of blog articles are published to the web every day, an outlet for people to share their thoughts, advice and opinions with the world. Getting into blogging is a great idea; you can make money by sharing your thoughts, you can connect with like-minded people, and your content could really change someone’s life across the world. But what should you consider before starting your own blog?
Below are five things you should remember when setting up your first online blog:
Know your grammar
This one might seem whimsical, but there are legions of online readers who won’t entertain a blog that’s not carefully crafted. While blogging can be great fun it’s also a serious business, and there are so many blogs out there for your potential site visitors to choose from that they won’t think twice about clicking away from a page of carelessly crafted content. Check your “yours”, your comma placement and how the content flows, and have someone else check it for you too where possible. You might miss a few little mistakes! Ensuring the high quality of your content is vital to attract those all-important eyeballs, so really go to town on this one.
Have a point
All blogs need a purpose: to help, inform, entertain and shock are just a few of the motivations behind some of today’s biggest blogging sites. If you’re going to share your opinions on the breakfasts of Downtown Chicago, be sure you have a definitive opinion on each article. If your content is designed to shock then take your harsh view and follow it through; shocking content is likely to encourage engagement from your readers (who may well disagree with you!) so be sure to interact with this too.
Post regularly
Many bloggers are overambitious when they start out, publishing content several times a week, or even several times a day. Be aware that blogging is a long-term venture and you should aim for some consistency in your writing, for example, posting two times a week on a Tuesday and Thursday. Introducing regularity to your blog will mean that loyal readers will know when to expect some writing from you, and they’re likely to return on your “publish days” to see the next installment.
Share!
The power of social is infinite in the blogging world: set up social media accounts on at least Twitter and Facebook to distribute your blog content. Provide a short teaser as to what each post is about, and place a few choice hashtags on there to reach your audience. It’s also good practice to engage with other bloggers, both on social media and on their websites, to encourage them to interact with your own content. This will attract their audience to your site and hopefully boost traffic!
Register a domain name and get a web hosting package
While platforms like WordPress can provide a great starting point for bloggers – with an inbuilt community of bloggers to “follow” – you should consider purchasing a web hosting package and hosting your website yourself. This puts you in complete control of how the site looks, how much traffic it can cope with and how much storage is available to you. Registering a domain name outside of a standard wordpress.com web address will give your blog the stand-out treatment: you can truly personalize your web presence to showcase to your readers what you’re talking about.
Get started with your blog today by registering your domain name over on our website!