From a platform for self-expression to being one of the most powerful tools for sharing professional information on the net, blogging has come a long way.
A professional blog is a great way to promote any business or just share your passion with the world. But there are some things to keep in mind before embarking on your first blog journey.
Before starting out, we need a blogging platform that’s easy to set-up and doesn’t require any coding skills. Though there are many options available, WordPress is truly the best one. It’s scalable, cheap, and completely customizable. You can start with a small blog and easily grow it as your business grows.
However, there are a lot of mistakes beginner bloggers make, in this article we’ll go through the most common and how to avoid them.
Getting Confused with the Platform
The most common mistake people often make is choosing the wrong platform because of the underlying confusion between WordPress.com (which is a self-hosted platform) and WordPress.org (which requires you to host your own blog or website).
Depending on how much you are willing to spend or how much control you want over your site, you can choose the best available option. If you plan to grow your website and have more options for customization, going with a hosting company on .org is the way to go. This will allow you to keep your domain name as you grow.
Not Choosing your Target Audience
More than half the bloggers you will meet have no idea who they are blogging for. In order to attract to your audience, you need to know who they are.
Select your audience, find out relevant details about them and use that information to devise a successful blog strategy that appeals to your audience and helps you stand out.
Neglecting the Importance of Emails
Email lists are a very important part of your marketing campaign. Along with social media, emails are a great way to get your content in front of more eyes.
Set up an email campaign with a plugin like MailChimp. Find the content you want to share with your audience and schedule a time to send it out weekly or monthly.
Avoid Posting Too Much or Too Little
It can be hard to find a good balance between posting too much or too little. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience, but you want to make sure they see new content when they visit.
Make sure you find a cadence that suits the needs of your audience but is also easy for you to stick to. The quality of content shouldn’t suffer because you’re trying to post something every day. Try difference schedules for a couple weeks and see what works best for you and your audience.
Not Devising any Financial Plans with Your Blog
Initially, you might have started blogging as a hobby but in due time, your website will need money to stay afloat even if you didn’t plan on it initially. And if you are going to spend a lot of time on it, why not use it to make some extra income for you?
Allowing advertisements on your website is a common way of generating income, other ways include promoting affiliate products, offering a job board, asking for donations etc. Try out some options that work for you.
Start Blogging
Now you have the tools to go forward and start blogging!
Janet Clinton
Janet T Clinton is a web design professional working at Clap Creative, a web design company in Los Angeles. She has written several articles related to technology, e-commerce and entrepreneurship. You can follow her on Twitter as well @janettclinton.
The post 7 Common Mistakes We All Make While Starting Out On Our Blog Journey appeared first on Torque.
