Create a Blog that Rocks in No Time: 10 Tips and Tricks

Many people create blogs today that generate plenty of revenue but others fail miserably and abandon their blogs after a few months. This is because there are methods you need to follow if you expect to create a blog, grow it, monetize it and increase sales. Before you can think about monetizing a blog, use these 10 tips and tricks to create a blog that gives you the best chance of success.

#1 Find the right niche

Finding the right niche is not rocket science. You need to choose a topic that really interests you and that you want to learn more about or you will battle to write consistently.

You also need to have an audience for what you write so you need to find out whether enough other people are interested in the topic. It is better for readers and search engines if you focus on a specific niche instead of making your blog too general.

#2 Name your blog and find a web host

Finding a domain name for your blog is exciting. When coming up with a name, think about using a keyword that represents what it is about. It helps to make it catchy and memorable and using a .com is best.

There are many companies that offer domain names and it doesn’t cost much to buy one. Web hosting allows your blog to be seen online and many web hosting companies offer to host at reasonable prices.

#3 Install WordPress

WordPress is one of the best free blogging platforms and it is easy to install. With a few clicks, it is ready to start using.

If you are new to WordPress, you may be a little daunted when you log in and see the dashboard but it won’t take long before you’re comfortable using it. There are many tutorials you can find online to help you get started and plenty of support for this blogging platform.

#4 Choose a theme

WordPress free themes make it easy to get started, even if you don’t have design skills. First, you need to login to your WordPress admin by going to yourdomain.com/wp-admin and entering your user credentials.

Go to “Appearance” in the sidebar on the left of your dashboard, hover over it and then click on “Themes.” When you click “Add New,” you will see thousands of themes. Clicking on the thumbnail of a theme offers you a preview of what the theme will look like. If it suits your topic and personal style, you can go ahead and click “install,” activate it and start customizing.

#5 Optimize technical blog aspects

Various WordPress plugins help you to optimize the technical aspects of your blog. For example, it helps if your XML sitemap is automatically updated because it allows the search engines to crawl your blog for your new posts or pages.

You can also optimize your Permalinks, which are the static hyperlinks leading to a particular post. In the left sidebar, hover over “Settings” and choose “Permalinks” to create a custom URL structure that looks better than the WordPress default.

If you’re daunted by these technical aspects, you can check out any advanced marketing blog or other similar sites for help. 

#6 Choose engaging blog topics

There are many different ways to come up with blog topics. It can help to start by writing down questions your audience may be asking. If you type your question into Quora, you will soon see how many people are asking and answering questions about the topic.

Think about what will excite or inspire your audience. For example, if they are camping enthusiasts, they may be excited about a new kind of tent. Figure out what common challenges your audience may be facing. For example, said camping enthusiasts may have problems with camping gear that’s too heavy.

#7 Publish your first blog post

Intimate knowledge of who you’re writing for will help you to write engaging content. All you need to do to create your blog post is to go to “Posts” in the left sidebar of the dashboard and click “Add New.” You will see various editing options and you can click “Toolbar Toggle” in the WordPress content editor to see more.

Add a keyword-optimized title as well as subheadings and bullet points to break up your text and make it easier to read. Add images to your post by clicking the “Add Media” button, which allows you to drag and drop images into your post.

Before you publish your post, click on “Preview” so you can see what it will look like and make any changes you think are necessary, including fixing any grammar and spelling mistakes.

#8 Share your post on social media

You won’t get anywhere if you create a blog and you don’t market it. Make sure you share any content you publish to all your social media accounts. Choose a feature image that will entice users on social platforms to click on your post.

When arriving on your blog, they may just stay there and browse other content. Start to learn what content works best on which platforms and which posts bring the most visitors to your blog.

#9 Create a schedule for your blog posts

Unless you publish content consistently, you have little chance of building your audience. Having a schedule keeps you organized, accountable and helps you to streamline your marketing efforts.

All you need to create a schedule is an Excel spreadsheet. Start with columns for the publishing date, title of the post, the keyword you want to target. The titles do not have to be perfect – they can simply be working headlines.

#10 Monetize your blog

With a blog, you can build an audience through many different mediums, such as using SEO strategies to get organic traffic from the search engines, publishing an email newsletter, building a presence on social media, reaching out to other bloggers and guest posting on their blogs.

Your blog gives you an opportunity to interact with potential customers and get feedback from them. This can help you design products they really want and sell them. If your blog gets a high amount of traffic, you can sell ads to large corporations.

Publishing great content also helps you to sell physical products. For example, you can become an Amazon affiliate by writing about products and directing people to Amazon through your links.

Conclusion

You may be disappointed that monetization comes last in this post. The reason for this is that making money the main driving factor in your early efforts can be counterproductive. As you consistently create great content, you will start building meaningful relationships. Your audience will help to point you in the right direction and this will enable you to sell the right products to them and be successful.

About the Author

Emma Coffinet is a prolific academic writer known for high-class thesis, dissertation and essay writing. She works as a freelancer and has work contracts with essay help UK, bestcustomessay.org and a dissertation writing service in UK. She has a natural flair for writing and a commendable academic background adds to it. She’s currently authoring a book on student motivation and career excellence.