Beginners’ Guide on How to Start a Blog

According to Worldometer, over 6.5 million blog post are written every day, and there are over 600 million blogs on the Internet (growthbadger.com). The current Wordometers global blog post count for July 11, 2017 is over 5 million. The top bloggers in the United States, earn between $2.5 million to $14 million annually.

The reason why people start blogging differs, some people blog mainly to share their personal experiences, while others do so to promote their products and services. Whatever the reason for blogging, the focus is to reach out to the 3.8 billion daily Internet users. Blogging is a big business and it is one of the most used social media channels by digital marketers.

What is a Blog?

In its earliest form, a blog was simply an online site where you maintain a logbook. Then it was purely a process for keeping a log of personal experiences or notes about a product or service, which done regularly. Blogs, unlike physical logbooks, are not purely private, because blog posts are visible to the public on the Internet, meaning that all 3.8 billion Internet users worldwide may see a blog posts.

Therefore, if you must be a blogger, it is imperative for you to understand what blogging means; therefore defining the term blogging is crucial. Blogging is a social engagement tool, and a means of communicating ideas, market a product or informing customers about new products and services they may be interested. Blogging is a pre-occupation driven by the passion to share information.

A Blog is a regularly updated website or web page, typically one belong to an individual or small group, using informal conversational style. I prefer to define a blog as a web site that is published either by an individual or corporate organization that post frequent updates, with the sole purpose of engaging users real-time.

Who Can Start a Blog?

Anybody can be a blogger, provided you know how to use the share button on social media, and can write simple and short comments or short notes. As long as you can do any of these, you can start a blog. The act of blogging, though simplistic, but could be challenging sometimes, and that largely depends on whether you are an amateur or a professional blogger.

Most amateur are private bloggers, and they are those who blog simply for passionate reasons, and often, they post short comments or share posts from other sources on social media sites. On the other hand, professional bloggers are those who blog for a living, and because they make money from blogging, their posts are more detailed and specialized in nature.

The focus of the professional blogger is to reach as many people as possible, and get them to follow or subscribe to their blog, thereby creating a large active audience, which attract advertisers to use the platform to promote their brands and to generate leads.

The Different Type of Bloggers

Digital marketers, social media managers and influencers fall within the category of professional bloggers. This group of bloggers write well-researched articles on a regular basis and are usually about a product and service or that of other brands. They curate content and media that helps to attract traffic to their websites or generate leads to the websites of advertisers.

How to Start a Blogging Site

I have treated extensively, the processes of starting a blogging site in my previous articles titled “Blogging for a Living,” and “The Best Blogging Websites in 2017.” In these articles, I explained how to set up a new blog, and listed which blogging sites are the most effective. Some blog sites are free, and these are the most common ones often used by amateurs. Professional bloggers prefer to use paid domains.

It is important to note that using paid domain does not guaranty success as a blogger. Many bloggers out there use free blogging sites and are earning substantially. Quality content is key to becoming a successful blogger. Content may be in form of articles, illustration, video or eBook. You can combine all of these or decide to use any one of them. Producing quality content requires both knowledge and experience in your area of specialisation.

The frequency of your post is another crucial aspect of blogging, which you need to know. A blog, as explained earlier, is a logbook that require regular updates, at least once each day. Some top blogging sites have as many as four post daily. The more post you have daily, the more traffic you attract to the site.

The length of the post also matters, and it various from blog to blog. Some post are just short comments that are not more than one or two sentences, while others could be a lengthy article of between four hundred to one thousand words, either with or without an illustration.

What Can You Blog About?

You can blog about anything. A blogger can be any one and in any discipline or business segment of preference. The objective is to target a large audience and attract as much traffic to the site as possible, as far as it produces the desired returns. To achieve this objective, emphasis must be on the quality of the content, regular updates and frequent site promotion.