Blogging is one of the most popular ways to reach and audience or make money online and each year millions of new blogs are started. With so many new blogs it’s easy to get lost in the noise without a plan. With that in mind, I’ve put together my top 10 tips for starting a blog this year, each of which I wish I had known when I first got started.
Content Is Still King
Even after all these years content is still the king for any blog. A blog lives and dies by it’s content, and this has never been more true than now.
The fact is that each year more and more blogs are launched, and the vast majority of them will never achieve anything. What separates the winners is their content. It’s not enough to have a lot of content, but it needs to be good. No matter its form, text, image, video, quality always trumps quantity, and should be your focus for blogging in 2022.
But Content Forms Change
With that in mind, recent years have seen a huge rise in video content. That’s not to say other forms are irrelevant, but just that video is important to consider. This is in contrast to the past where written articles were king. While articles are still a big part of any blog’s strategy, supplementing them with video or even image content goes a long way.
The problem, or bonus depending how you look at it, is that video is typically more difficult to produce than other forms of media. This can make the barrier of entry larger, but puts those that can produce videos at a distinct advantage. If you have the skills to produce videos you can really boost your blog and set it apart from others.
We're also seeing a huge adoption of short form video content like Instagram's stories or TikTok. These put a new spin on the types of video that businesses are producing, and savy marketers are taking note and adjusting accordingly.
Long Tail Keywords
It’s been so in the past, but long tail keywords remain a staple of SEO in 2022. As more and more blogs are created, competition only becomes more fierce, and it becomes more difficult to rank for higher traffic keywords.
Newer blogs should therefore look to target long tail keywords that have less competition. From there, they can slowly expand to target more competitive words, and grow their blog once they’ve established themselves. If you’re not familiar with the value SEO has to your blog that’s a point to read up on right away.
Titles and Descriptions
Competition has never been more fierce, so every little bit helps. Where titles and descriptions really shine is through your click thru rate, which ultimately can help your rankings. Also, by definition, it’s the amount of people that see your article on a search result and actually click it which by itself is important to growing your audience.
This is also really that last finishing touch that so many people skimp on. I’ve seen it over and over again, people will spend hours perfectly crafting an article only to then take 3 minutes to put together some flimsy title. Remember, your title and description are all people see in the search results. If it doesn’t compel them to click it won’t matter how great your article is.
Get on Social Media
It’s impossible to ignore the importance of social media in our lives, and your blog should look to utilize that. Social media provides a ready built audience of millions of potential users, and you don’t want to ignore that potential reach.
There’s a lot to know about social media, but the key is to understand the differences and goals of each platform. What you’re looking to do on Facebook for example is different from Pinterest. The key idea though is that your marketing plan needs to include some social media in it, otherwise you’re potentially leaving huge pools of your potential audience untapped.
It's also important to be aware of how social media changes and which platforms are the most relevant. 5 years ago it might have been Facebook, but now platforms like Instagram and TikTok are taking over. That's not to say you need to jump on every trend, but you should be aware of what's happening.
Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thin
Building off the last point, it’s also important not to get so absorbed in social media that it consumes you. You can literally spend 40+ hours a week just managing your social media profiles, but that’s not likely to be the best use of your time. Especially when you first start, social media should be an auxiliary tool to help gain reach, but not be your prime focus.
To that effect, my advice is to pick maybe 1 or 2 social platforms that mesh well with your target audience and start with those. You don’t have to be super active there, a few posts a week goes a long way as does replying to any comments. Once you’ve established your blog you can re-evaluate your marketing strategy and see what to add on. At that point you should have a better understanding of both the social platforms as well as your business and be able to narrow in on high impact activities.
Your theme isn’t really that important, but speed is
This is something I am guilty of, I can remember spending hours tweaking small things that really didn’t matter too much. While it’s important to take pride in your site, it’s also important to not let perfection be the enemy of good. Getting the site out the door, even if it’s not 100% perfect in your eyes, is usually the best route. Odds are, most users won’t even notice the small things. You are your own harshest critic after all.
Where you can’t skimp however is actual performance and functionality. If your site takes too long to load you will lose visitors, period. Therefore, it’s important to make sure you do whatever you can to speed up your site. You also can’t let things be broken. Links should always work, and all other functionality your users expect should always work, no exceptions.
Luckily, there are a lot of tools that provide automated checking for common issues like broken links and images. SEO platforms like SERanking typically have such a tool, and there are a number of free options as well. There's no excuse for a site that's broken with all the help available.
Neither are all the shiny tools
If you search for even a few minutes you’ll find thousands of tools related to marketing and building your blog. While many of these are quality products, when you first start out it’s best to just ignore them. Not only will it save your money, but many of them require specialized knowledge you likely won’t have yet. You’re better off focusing on building your site and getting it established. Then you can come back later and evaluate which tools will help you the most.
Quick note here, tools like Google analytics or webmaster tools should be set up from the beginning. This tip mainly applies to additional marketing tools that have a cost associated with them. That's also not to say that you can't use them if you know what you're doing and have the budget. I personally like to stay as lean as possible, so wait until absolutely necessary to start paying for additional tools.
SEO is still key to growth
When it all comes down to it, SEO is still the best way to naturally grow your blog. Nothing comes close in terms of free, passive traffic and is key to a blog’s long term success.
The big problem with SEO is the time it takes to start seeing the results. You’re looking at months of hard work before you’ll really start to see results, and that can be disappointing to some. That’s why it’s important to always be thinking of SEO, and how each article contributes overall. Eventually, it will just become natural, and you’ll reap the rewards.
Newsletters
Lastly, it’s never too soon to start getting email signup for a newsletter. These then become people who have already established a desire in your content that you can directly market to later.
With platforms like MailChimp, you can set up a simple subscribe form in a matter of minutes and start collecting emails. Being so quick to implement there really isn’t a good excuse not to. You’ll thank yourself later once you have a nice list you can market to.
While the above are tips to get you started they are from the end all in running a successful blog. Part of growing your following is getting creative in how you market yourself and your blog, so never be afraid to try something new and step out of your comfort zone. With that in mind, the 10 tips above will atleast give you a solid foundation to start from and benefit you and your business in a positive way.
What techniques are you using in the coming year to grow your blog?