5 Things You Need To Know Before Starting Your Blog

Please note: this is a contributed post.

If you’re thinking about starting a blog, then we wish you every success with your endeavor. Blogging can be a great pastime, letting you voice your opinion, use your writing talents, and possibly add to your income. However, before you jump in, there are a few things you need to know at the outset.

You Need a Decent Website

Your readers won’t stick around to read your content if your website isn’t up to par. Web design is key, and if your website is unresponsive, slow to load, or uninteresting to look at, you won’t get many followers. Your best bet is to hire web developers to help you put something functional together, or to choose a dedicated blogging platform such as WordPress that will guide you through the steps towards creating a great site.

You Need to Commit to Blogging

After creating a blog, and after writing your first few posts, you may be ready to rest on your laurels and watch your hit counter rise. Unfortunately, your readers will lose interest if you don’t commit to writing regular blog entries. At least one post a week is the standard for most bloggers, and this will make sure your readership continues. That is provided you have written something worth reading, of course.

You Need to be Social

You may have written something amazing, but you won’t get many readers if you don’t commit to marketing yourself. You need to be proactive, spreading the word about your blog and your latest posts on your social media accounts. This is your best way to increase traffic to your site, and encourage your contacts to share your site with their social networks as well. Another way to increase your readership is to adhere to SEO principles – follow the link for advice on this essential tool to increase your readership.

You Need to Find Your Niche

While there are blogs that cover nearly every subject under the sun (and beyond the moon), you will get more readers if you find a niche and stick to it. The Creative Cottage is more of a broad focus on arts, crafts, DIY, home improvement, recipes and freelance writing and blogging. My Sloth Athletica blog has a more specific focus – I cover health, wellness and fitness and anything to do with my favorite athletic activities (swimming, biking, running, triathlons and standup paddle boarding.

By focusing on one or two niche subjects, you can focus your efforts on subjects that will attract a specific audience to your blog. Of course, you do need to write what you know about, so don’t risk writing about subjects you know little about as your readership will see right through you. After finding your niche, you can also market your blog further, sending word out on social media groups and forums that are centered around the topics you are writing about.

You Need to be Patient

Don’t expect to get a lot of readers overnight. It can take a while before your blog gains a following, so don’t give up early if you don’t see the results you are looking for. Marketing will help your cause, as will writing to a niche that will attract an audience, so persist in your efforts and you will make your mark eventually.

Anybody can write a blog, but it takes time, dedication, and a lot of forethought to become successful as a blogger. My favorite social media networks to market my blogs are Facebook and Instagram. I also use Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn, but not as often.

I hope my simple advice helped, but if you have ideas of your own to share with other aspiring bloggers, then please let me know by leaving a comment on this blog. Thanks for reading, and happy blogging!