Starting a blog

 

Starting a new blog is exciting but can also be daunting at the same time.

Setting up a website can feel completely overwhelming, and it often takes a lot of trial and error. The good news is nothing is written in stone. You can always fix, tweak, change and evolve as your blog grows.

To help you get started on the right foot, below are some common mistakes to avoid that new bloggers make when setting up their website.

These mistakes aren’t anything “bad”, they are simply things that you may overlook, or not even be aware of, when getting started.

And while content is king, avoiding these simple “behind the scenes” newbie mistakes can help give your blog growth a “boost” without too much extra effort.

 

Mistake #1: Using a poorly made theme 

 

Not all WordPress themes are created equal, but with the millions of theme options available, how do you know which ones are good and which aren’t? And BTY i use Blogger :)

Unless you’re a coder, it’s nearly impossible to know!

Invest a little money and purchase a premium theme. Not all free themes are bad, but a premium (paid) theme will better your chances of having a solid foundation for your blog.

 

Mistake #2: Not using an SEO plug-in

 

You don’t have to be an SEO expert to apply good SEO practices to your site.

It’s very easy to optimize your blog for the search engines by simply installing a free plugin such as Yoast through your WordPress dashboard.

With either of these plugins, you can enter keywords and descriptions for each blog post right on the blog post edit page – giving the search engines lots of good reasons to rank your pages easily!

 

Mistake #3: Not collecting email addresses

 

You may be thinking, “I don’t need to collect email addresses, I’m just blogging!”.

That may be true if you never plan to monetize your site, :( and who here doesn't like money, but if you have dreams of growing an online business or selling a product down the line, then you want to start collecting those email addresses now!

Your list will grow faster if you can offer a fun and valuable freebie when someone subscribes. This is often called a “lead magnet”. 

Your lead magnet could be a free downloadable printable, a free eBook, or anything else that would provide value to your readers. Delight them with something amazing!

You can always check out our List Building Label for on building your list.

 

Mistake #4: Using poor images – or no images

 

Good images can grow your site!

Whether you have a food blog, craft blog, organizing blog or parenting blog, a nice image with each blog post can really add value for your readers and create loyal followers.

Not to mention you can use your images to gain traffic to your blog through Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram.

Even if your image is a simple graphic with the title of your blog post, try to use some sort of visual with every post to add interest to your content.

You can create nice-looking graphic images at Canva.com for free!

 

Mistake #5: Letting your blog sit idle

 

This is definitely one of the most common mistakes new bloggers make...lack of consistency. Trust me i am guilty of this as well sad but true.

It can be hard to get a new blog off the ground when you feel like no one is reading but keeping that regular content flowing is critical to growing your blog.

Create an editorial strategy and schedule and stick to it. Consistency, even if it’s only once a week, is better than blogging every day for a week, and then not adding anything new for a month.

Give your readers a reliable schedule so they have a reason to come back.

Avoid these (very common) mistakes above and you are already ahead of the blogging game with a solid foundation.

 How to Create a Blog, Even if You’re a Boring Business

Content marketing is more and more becoming the most effective way to promote any kind of business or website online and should be a crucial part of your strategy. But why is it so important, and how do you make sure to do it successful? Especially if your business is not something particularly gripping…?

How it Works and Why it Matters

The biggest mistake that most businesses make when trying to promote their businesses online is to focus too much on the short term. That is to say that they look at their internet marketing through the lens of how many conversions they can get from any given media strategy. This then results in them posting what are essentially adverts then getting confused as to why no one clicks on them.

What's far more important is to think about the long term, and about establishing trust and influence in your chosen niche. If you read a few articles on a site about how someone made X amount of money and those articles are well written, insightful and inspiring, then you're going to return to that website when you feel in the mood to buy a book on making money. The same goes for a site that writes about home improvement and also offers some DIY services. If you've read content there before and you know they know what they're talking about, then that's the business you're going to want to buy from.

How to Write Great Content

So here's the problem – you run a restaurant and you don't see any way that you can contribute anything interesting to a blog. What do you do?

Well for starters, there's no industry that has nothing interesting to say. If you're working out of an office within a very dry B2B industry such as corporate finance, then you can write tips for others within your industry, or financial tips for other businesses. In this scenario you could even write tips for private individuals to help them manage their finances. If you have a flier company, then you can write about design, about marketing and about launching a new business. Just think a little outside the box and you'll find there are always interesting subjects in and around your industry.

To make your content interesting and engaging meanwhile, focus on how you structure the posts. Most successful of all are posts that are written as 'stories' almost, in that they are written from a first person perspective, or about someone that the reader can relate to. The human brain is actually 'hardwired' to enjoy stories, and thus you will find that this makes them very compelling and difficult to stop reading.

What if You Can't Write?

But what if you can't write content?
In that case you have numerous options. One is to hire someone who can, another is to communicate in other ways – you could upload video content for instance rather than articles. You can even get your customers to write for you, or get guest posts for free by partnering with other blogs.

No matter your business or your experience, content should be a major part of your strategy. No excuses!