The most frequently asked question by my readers: I want to start a blog, how do you think I should go about it?
This question is so frequent in my e-mail box, instagram message box and blog comments that I finally decided to write a beginner’s guide for those who want to become a blogger.
In this article;
What is a blog actually?
Can I write a blog too?
What should I do to start a blog?
Which blogging service should I use?
Which topic should I write about? Can topic A and topic B be on the same blog?
What should I do to make money from this?
What should a good blog post look like?
… and similar questions.
In other words, I answer all the questions of those who want to write a blog but don’t know where and how to start. Therefore, I will start with the most basic concepts so that all the pieces fall into place.
1) What is a Blog?
A blog is a digital content where the author shares his/her feelings, thoughts or experiences on any subject in a free or original way. In short, blogs are a kind of content sharing tool where the author has the luxury of running around as they wish.
In the past, blogs used to be described as “internet diaries”. Nowadays, it is necessary to broaden this definition because blogs are not only about sharing the author’s experiences in a specific chronological order. Sometimes blogging is also used for content marketing.
2) Can I Blog Too? How Should I Follow?
If I were one of those unqualified self-help experts who make money from the cheap motivational presentations they sell, I would tell you, “yes, anyone can blog.” I won’t! I prefer to give a more sincere answer:
Just like anyone can sing, anyone can blog, but I guess what the people who asked this question were really wondering was this: Would it be read if I write too?
It is worth a try, but I have prepared a few questions to help you predict this:
Were your essays appreciated in primary school?
Did you like grammar class?
Do you like writing, whether it brings you financial benefits or not?
What have you written so far?
When discussing a topic, do you prefer to write instead of talking on the phone?
If you answer positively to a few of these questions, you probably have a good ability to express yourself through writing. In this case, you should definitely try blogging.
If you answered in the negative to all of them but still feel confident, there is only one option left: Trial and error. So, instead of asking any blogger “can I blog too?”, start a blog site and experience the feedback for yourself. In the rest of the article, I talked about how to start a blog site.
What Should I Do to Start a Blog?
To answer this question, I should briefly talk about blogging services. That is, the intermediaries already in place for you to get yourself a blog site:
WordPress
Blogger / Blogspot
Tumblr
Wix
Weebly
Medium
Blogger
These platforms provide specialized services so that you can easily create a blog site. Just like creating a profile on a social media platform, you can create a blog site on these platforms. Moreover, all of them have a free option.
BUT!
However, I don’t recommend the free options. In fact, I only recommend the paid option of wordpress among these services.
Because:
Free blogging services offer very limited possibilities. A free service that you think is enough to get you started can turn into a pain in the ass tomorrow. So be you, if you take this job seriously, choose wordpress.
WordPress is an open source service developed by thousands of people. It also allows you to produce content that is most compatible with search engines like Google.
The blog site you are reading right now (hizliadam.com) was built with wordpress.
If you don’t want to deal with site setup and technical details, if you just want to write and publish, you can have your site built by a wordpress expert and get it turnkey. This is not a very costly job.
How Should I Choose a Topic? Are Posts on Topic A and Posts on Topic B Appropriate on the Same Blog?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions: Choosing a topic!
Bloggers can give different answers to this question according to their own experiences. Since this article is based on my experience, I can tell you the following with all sincerity and based on my experience:
Write about what you understand best or what you are naturally interested in.
Always have a subject limitation.
If you want to write on more than one topic, make sure they are related to each other.
Don’t create content with cliché slogans like “everything about life”.
Don’t be the subject of your blog posts (I explain this below).
WHY?
If you write in your areas of interest, you can continue to produce content years later without getting bored. On the contrary, if you write outside your areas of interest, you can be sure that your production will come to a standstill after a while.
Personally, I’ve been blogging for more than 15 years and I owe this stability to sticking to content production in my areas of interest. Despite this, there is a huge difference between the frequency of my production 5 years ago and now. I don’t produce as much content as I used to because after hundreds of pages, there are limits to what I can write. If you don’t want to reach those limits too soon, take my advice and choose topics that you enjoy writing about.
Limit the topics so that it’s clear who your blog is for. Don’t get greedy. Don’t think that if I write about everything, I will attract people from all walks of life to my blog.
Your most important source for acquiring visitors will be search engines. If we are talking about search engines, let’s take Google, which is the largest in volume:
Google prioritizes websites that produce content in a specific field in its search results. This is because it considers this website to be authoritative on that topic.
Even more important than what Google thinks is what your visitors think. If you want to turn visitors to your site into loyal visitors, i.e. followers, you need to make them feel the areas in which you produce content.
What Should I Do to Make Money Blogging?
Normally I wouldn’t have included this title, but since there are hundreds of people asking this question without having a blog site yet, I would like to answer it briefly.
Blogging is a way of earning in the long run. There is no doubt that it requires labor and patience. If you think that you will make money after a few months when you start blogging today, know that you are dreaming. I am both serious and sincere about this.
In the same way, if you want to blog just for the financial benefits, you should know that you probably won’t be a successful blogger.
Do you know what that’s like?
It’s like saying there’s a lot of money in singing and wanting to be a singer. On the other hand, when we look at those who are singers, whether they make money or not, they love singing. In short, you can make money doing what you love. If you don’t like writing, don’t waste your time or effort.
If you agree with me on this, you don’t need to think about the question “how do I make money blogging?”. Because, the first thing you need to do is to have a blog site with visitors. Once you reach a certain audience, I bet you will discover how to make money on your own.
Bloggers earn money from the promotional articles they publish for a fee, the visual or written links they put on their web pages for a fee, the Google Adsense ads they place on their sites, and the freelance jobs that come to them as offers.
For all this to happen, first of all, your blog site needs to reach a certain number of visitors. Fulfill this basic criterion first and you will have plenty of time to think about how to make money.
What Makes a Good Blog Post?
So far so good and I assume that you have started your blog site or have decided to start one.
So, let’s talk about what you should pay attention to when writing your blog posts from now on.
Maybe you will get angry, but this is a topic that needs to be analyzed separately and has its own sub-headings. So, instead of going on at length about “how to write a good blog post”, I would like to talk about the basic factors and the topics you should research.
Basic Factors:
A good title increases the readership of a post many times over.
A good blog post should, above all, be original. It should contain sentences written by the author himself, rather than copy-pasted sentences. You can review my useful articles on both headings and writing on this page.
Content that is compatible with search engines is a very important criterion for people to discover your articles.
You should use features such as images, subheadings, articles, etc. that both facilitate reading and enrich the content.
It gives you an advantage to explain topics that everyone can write about in a simple way that everyone can understand.
If you can answer the question “Why should anyone read this article?” sincerely and logically, it is probably successful. As I said above, focus on being useful so that readers don’t say “what’s in it for me?”.
The post Roadmap For Those Who Want To Become A Blogger appeared first on NSF News and Magazine.