Anyone can easily start a blog. Starting a successful blog that has the potential to make money, on the other hand, is not as easy. Before starting a blog, consider the following:
- What topic are you interested in focusing on?
- How much money are you willing to invest in the design and marketing of the blog?
- How much time are you willing to spend writing and promoting the blog?
Choosing a Blog Topic
The majority of blogs are written about the blogger's personal life and not about a specific topic. Writing a personal journal online is a way to share stories and opinions, however, very few personal blogs make it big. The world's most popular blogs are topical.
Choosing a blog topic should be a careful consideration. The blogger must know a great deal about the topic as well as be passionate about it. Once a topic has been chosen, it is important to determine which keywords are relevant to the topic.
Choosing the right keywords can help the blog rank higher in search engines and establish the blog as a top site within a particular niche market. For help determining which keywords are most appropriate, use Google's Keyword Tool.
Setting Up a Blog
There are a variety of blogging services to choose from including Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, Xanga, and Live Journal. Blogger is a user friendly platform for first-time bloggers, and it's free. Arguably, Wordpress is the best platform for a professional blog though.
Wordpress is free to download and since it is an open source platform, it is constantly being improved and updated. Wordpress requires the blogger to purchase a domain name and hosting through another company and install Wordpress. Step-by-step instructions can be found on Wordpress.org.
Once Wordpress is installed, a theme can be chosen. Themes already have important plugins and widgets built into them such as RSS subscription, which is necessary for building a reader base.
Customizing the theme to appeal to potential readers of the blog is important. Customizing the theme requires design savvy and an understanding of cascading style sheets (CSS) customization.
If customizing a blog theme sounds scary, hiring a blog designer is a wise choice. It costs much less to have a blog designed than a website designed. Blog designers on Elance charge as little as $100.00 for a custom design.
Launching a Blog
Prior to launching a blog, the blog needs to be populated with some content. The content should be relevant to the overall topic of the blog and the chosen keywords should be integrated into the content. Once there is content on the blog, making it worthwhile to read, the blog can be promoted.
Social media marketing should be an integral part of promoting the blog. Set up a twitter account for the blog and start a fan page on facebook. Social bookmarking is another social media phenomenon that can be used to promote a blog. Allow readers to bookmark and share quality posts by implementing an AddThis button.
One of the most effective ways to get noticed is by connecting with other bloggers within the same niche. Offer to interview other bloggers or write guest posts to increase exposure and build backlinks. Backlinks are incoming links that help optimize a website or blog for search engines. Commenting on blogs within the same niche or writing a post in response to another blogger's post is another way to build backlinks.
Blogging requires discipline to continually write about a specific topic. The key is to keep readers engaged and wanting to come back for more. As readership grows, bloggers can explore how to make money blogging.
A successful blog takes time to build but the journey is an exciting one with many opportunities, new connections, and learning experiences along the way.
Natalie MacNeil - Natalie MacNeil is a media producer and consultant, specializing in online media and marketing. She is an entrepreneur, award winning ...
