Starting your own blog: 7 tips for beginners

Blogging is more relevant than ever in content marketing. A company blog helps companies to increase their visibility on the Internet and to sharpen their company profile. One in four social media users is currently looking for information on blogs. And the relevance of the medium continues to grow.start blog?

Blogging has made it into the top 3 most popular content marketing tactics – it is able to attract and retain readers through entertaining knowledge transfer. A successful blog is an effective tool for generating conversions, and inbound marketing cannot be imagined without it.

Start Blog: The choice of blogging platform

At the beginning of each blogging career the choice of hosting platform is. A particularly well-known example of such a hosting service is WordPress.com.

The counterpart of this platform called WordPress.org offers open source software for creating and managing blogs. This is now used by over 60 million users . That is a beaten 30 percent of all websites on the normally accessible Internet.

WordPress start blog are therefore very popular and provide a home for many successful bloggers. However, if you want to take a different path when it comes to blogging , you can also test alternative blog software like Blogger.com .

Example: Free blogging with WordPress

If you have chosen WordPress as your platform, installation is easy. It runs on the modular principle, everything is provided. Users can choose between a selection of free WordPress themes (designs) and WordPress plugins (extensions) . You can also expand the manageable funds with some paid options to build your blog.

Basically, you only need a good internet connection for this basic version of your own blog . WordPress will do everything else for you.

If you want more autonomy, you have to pay
If you want more options and independence from the platform, you can download the WordPress software instead. You can then install it on a web server of your choice.

WordPress is open source software, so it is available for free. But you have to buy a domain with web space and database. There are also one or more e-mail addresses. Many providers offer Wordpress hosting packages : for example HostEurope, Domainfactory and Dreamhost.com.

These hosting providers have offers for web space (storage space), domain registration and their own e-mail accounts. This way of setting up a blog is more complex, but offers more individual design options. Plus: If the blog grows and needs to be expanded, this is easier than with the free platform.

Helpful resources:

• Find the right blog software
• Install Wordpress – a guide
• 8 steps to your own WordPress blog

Learning blogging: step by step

Blogging is hard work – if you want to learn how to start blog properly, you should take these tips for beginners to heart:

1) Determine the alignment and target group of the blog

To design the content of your blog, first select the topic field. When choosing your target, you should think about who you want to reach.

After you have determined your target group, determine which content is particularly relevant for them. To do this, you can, for example, interview customers over the phone.

Add the following sentence: You can also use a call center software to improve the customer experience.

Anyone who is involved in marketing can also choose buyer personas as inspiration for this purpose . Now knit your content around this thematic network.

Helpful resources:

• Create a buyer persona
• What is a corporate blog?

2) Read other blogs & get inspiration

In the hunt for specific ideas for contributions , you should look carefully through life. Conversations with colleagues, statements from customers, suggestions from business partners and other experiences in the work context – all of this can become a source of inspiration for you.

It is also a good idea to read related blogs : What are others writing about in your area? Do you also have relevant thoughts and arguments on this topic? Is it a good idea to present a different perspective on your blog? You will find that the scene is so mutually inspiring.

Magazines, specialist journals and books also offer further approaches to finding blog topics in this context . There are also a number of tools that make it easier to find a topic .

3) Record blog ideas

Great ideas often come at the most inopportune moments. For example, you get on the tram and are animated by a poster as you drive past.

So that the thought doesn’t slip away from you as quickly as it came, you should hold onto it. The classic notepad or its digital twin, the note app in the smartphone, are suitable for this. Alternatively, voice notes or photos also work.

You should then categorize and store the collected blog ideas in such a way that they can be accessed again quickly. In this way you create a pool of ideas for your blog that you can use at any time.

4) Good blogs add value to their readers

As soon as you have determined your target group, you can tailor content to them and thus increase your own relevance. Because satisfied readers come back, recommend you to others and become leads. The easiest way to achieve this is to have your blog address the questions and problems of its readership and offer solutions.

To help you write particularly interesting posts and great articles , we have put together the following tips:

5) Your blog has started. What should you watch out for when writing articles?

• Find an exciting headline . Make it short and sweet.
• Meet the expectations you create. When you announce a guide, your readers expect specific suggestions accordingly.
• Build in pictures . Nothing deters readers more than a wasteland of text. Loosen up your writing with visual stimuli.
• Don’t be afraid of whitespace . Many paragraphs in the text make what is written clearer.
• Choose an appealing layout : Subheadings, highlighted sentences and text boxes help your blog look good.
• Switch content formats : Articles, videos, infographics, checklists, product comparisons, reviews of specialist literature and instructions are typical options. This is how you keep your readers interested.
• Use the target audience’s language register . It is important to remain authentic. In general, however, the following applies: Too much technical language and anglicisms should be avoided.
• Make sure your articles are easy to read . Your blog is not a scientific thesis paper – practice creative writing and use metaphors, anecdotes and living language to convey your thoughts.
• Make content more concrete by illustrating it with examples and anecdotes . This will help readers understand your line of thought. Plus, if you can easily convey a complex topic, it works wonders for your authority on the subject.
• Integrate a call-to-action (CTA) . Give your readers the opportunity to study your material further. Offerings such as downloading a free e-books can be also used to generate leads .

6) Make the blog better known: build reach

To promote your blog, social media are essential. You should therefore integrate appropriate sharing buttons into your blog. Readers can easily like, share and recommend articles in the relevant social media channels.

You can also benefit from sharing with other blog authors in your niche. You can attract new readers to your blog through mutual links or joint projects. This will also make you better known in the scene.

Take care of your SEO to get a good search engine ranking . For a commercial blog, it is worth using the Google Keyword Planner or Wordpress plugins such as Yoast SEO. The Keyword Planner enables you to determine an exact search volume for keywords in your blog posts. So you are always on the safe side and know exactly which terms count.

Google Trends offers an alternative: It visualizes rough trends in search queries in relative numbers. So you shouldn’t expect exact values ​​here.

It also offers the possibility of comparing terms with one another. For example, you can decide on a relevant topic. Or instead of a generic keyword, choose one with a high current demand.

Helpful resources:

Case study: driving blog traffic when visitor numbers are stagnating
Developing Effective Blog Strategies – A Step-by-Step Guide
RSS Reader: How to Create an RSS Feed for Your Blog

7) These pages should not be missing when starting the blog

To make your by start blog socially acceptable, you should equip it with a few basic elements before you start blog. Because once your blog has just started , it may attract countless visitors per month.

An “About me” page should of course not be missing. Incidentally, this also offers you an excellent opportunity to tell something inspiring about your brand with appropriate storytelling. You can also place the media kit for your blog here, which will help you to find cooperation partners and even earn money as a blogger in the long term.

You should also integrate the imprint, data protection declaration and a page with a contact form for your readers.

Blogging has long been one of the most effective instruments in inbound marketing. For companies it offers opportunities to gain visibility through SEO and entertaining knowledge transfer. And loyal readers may become customers or bring other readers to your website through posts shared on social media.

Also Read: 5 ways to Build Brand Authority with Content Marketing