The iMarketing Cafe Team
Quick Introduction: FirstSiteGuide is a platform that offers free resources, guides and help for web newbies. If you are a newbie blogger or someone who is looking forward to start blogging – either as a hobby or to grow your business or you may want to take up blogging as a career – whatever the reason may be – these guys can guide you on how to start and manage a blog successfully. In this post, the FirstSiteGuide team shares 45 useful blogging tips for beginners or newbies.
Here we go –
Each member contributes 5 quick tips. Read on.
Ogi Djuraskovic – The guy behind FirstSiteGuide
1. Pick a niche – Your blog needs to have a purpose in order to efficiently reach your intended audience.
2. Choose something you are comfortable with – Your niche needs to be your specialty, something you are really good at; something that inspires your critical thinking. This way, you can be insightful.
3. Stay in your field of focus – Don’t try to be a know it all. It’s always better to stay in one field and thoroughly explore it. This is why your readers trust you.
4. The more detail you provide the better – Do not be too general, people who want to know more about the topic you have chosen, want to know specific details.
5. Never stop learning – Don’t shy away from learning more. And not just things related to your niche, but learn about blogging in general. Study your peers and blogging veterans.
Connor Rickett – Writer and blogger
6. Take a unique approach to the topic – Don’t just spin the existing topics. If numerous sites are already reviewing or doing a roundup of niche-related things, you should find a fresh approach.
7. Make sure that the content is evergreen – It basically means that you need to make content that will always be useful, like tutorials, tips, how to articles, etc.
8. Write both short and long articles – Longer and insightful content is regarded as more relevant, but shorter pieces can be more engaging for the audience.
9. Provide examples – The best way to explain something is to give examples that prove your point. You can also elaborate on a particular definition.
10. Read more to get inspiration – When you get writer’s block, read other good posts, create a contra argument on your blog; just make sure the topic is fresh.
Anja Skrba – Fashion blogger
11. Don’t use complex sentences – If you want to explain something, you need to make it simple and easy to follow. Don’t overcomplicate things with complex sentences, focus on fluency.
12. Avoid passive voice – The tone should be engaging, as if you are exploring something alongside your readers. So, use terms like “We” or “You”. That way, the audience will feel like they are participating. Passive voice seems really informative and it is not as engaging as the active voice.
13. Find your own style – Your content will need a personal touch, and by having a particular writing style, you can add that spark to your writing.
14. Write with conviction – People need to see that you are passionate about the topic, and if that passion is transferred to them, you will have their attention.
15. Get to the point – Don’t make long introductions and don’t beat around the bush like many other clickbait articles. Just go with a few introductory sentences and move straight to the point.
Bradley Barks – Video tutorial production, WordPress and SEO expert
16. Use relevant keywords in your title – If you want to have a better chance at ranking for a particular set of words, you should use adequate keywords in your title.
17. Use the same keyword phrases in the meta description – It would also be wise to include the keywords you used in your title in your article’s meta description.
18. Make sure that you have relevant links to back up your thesis – Your content needs to be built upon solid grounds. Use links from reliable sources in your articles, to elaborate on the points your article is based on.
19. Use videos to exemplify your subheadings – If you are creating instructions for something, or trying to exemplify a statement, it would be ideal to have a video that can back it up.
20. Use pictures to make your content more engaging – Your articles will look dull and empty without pictures, so use a relevant photo for some of your subheadings.
Artem Minayev – Web hosting expert
21. Use your niche as your blog name – If you have your own website blog, its name should be something niche related (ex. Alphatech – for a technology related blog).
22. Make sure that you regularly create new content – Your readers and subscribers love new updates. Establish a routine so that they can make a habit of visiting your website.
23. Spin your old content into new content – If you can’t come up with something ground breaking, gather a few of your old topics, and spin them into a new article. It’s a good way to keep up with your schedule. Your new subscribers will get a better insight into what they have missed so far.
24. Format your blog post – Just be sure that your text is neatly written and organized, you should format it properly.
25. Reach out to other people in the same niche – In order to gain some influence, you must go in the right direction. Reach out to influential people or bloggers in the same or similar niche. Ask them to feature you in their content, and say that you’ll do the same for them. It’s important that you tap into that peer synergy.
Marco Mijatovic – Social media and marketing guru
26. Share your posts – Once your post is live, make sure you share it on our social network profiles – Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, etc. The more people it reaches the better.
27. Use hashtags and find groups where you can post your content – To increase the chances of your post being discovered, you need to use the right hashtags. These hashtags need to be topic related (you can always use a category as your hashtag like #fashion, #health, etc.) Furthermore, find social media groups where you can share your content, and post your articles there, or ask admins to post them.
28. Interact with your readers – Do not forget to participate in discussions with your readers. If they give you a compliment, ask you a question, or even post a counter-thesis, make sure you respond to their comments. If you want to retain your readers, they need to know you value their opinion and that you appreciate their devotion to your blog.
29. Pick a good featured image to grab the reader’s attention – When you post something, it needs to grab the viewer’s attention, especially since your post will be located in an online stream of numerous other posts. So, when you are picking your featured image, you should take some time to find a really interesting one.
30. Pick the right moment for sharing – Don’t share your post at any given time, it would be good to share your best and most important posts around 6pm, when most of your readers are home unwinding.
George Dragojevic – Freelance blogger
31. Do not copy content from others – It is crucial that your content is original, or copyscape proof. So, do not copy someone else’s text, and if you are rewriting something, give a slice of your personal opinion.
32. Do not post your articles immediately after they are finished – If you are editing your content, don’t post it on the same day you have written it. Take another look at it the following day. You will edit it much better when your head is clear, and you might have new ideas, you may want to phrase something so that it sounds better.
33. Write for other niche-related platforms – You need places where your content can fit in, and where other readers, can discover your blog. So, find popular niche-related blogs, apply to become an author there, start writing and link your website in those posts.
34. Mention great posts written by other bloggers – Show your readers that you are up to date and orient your posts around other popular posts. It is good to have your own opinion on the subject, and it will come in handy if you need to reach out to other influencers. Let them know you’ve mentioned them.
35. Speed up your blog – Users love responsiveness. In other words, you need a good server for your blog to get the best loading speed possible.
Duke Vukadinovic – Email marketing expert
36. Do not promote your blog too aggressively – Do not spam your posts, and do not be too aggressive or pushy with your online promotion. Be friendly and welcome any new members, if you start filling their stream with your content, people will most likely block you and your mails will end up in their spam folder.
37. Invite other people to blog on your site – If you want more readers, then you need to allow other people to blog on your site. They all have followers, friends and connections, so with more authors, more readers will find your blog.
38. Send e-mails with recent updates – Just in case your subscribers can’t actively follow everything that is going on, a weekly e-mail can help them find their way back to your blog. If they receive an update of all of the hot topics you have covered, they will be reminded to pay you another visit.
39. Incentivize content sharing – Invite followers to share and like your posts. Having a high number of likes and shares is generally good, not only business wise. It is a small favor to ask in return for generating interesting articles, so don’t shy away from doing such a thing.
40. Make a social media page for your blog – It’s not enough to have your own profile, and to find other groups where you can share your posts. Take it a step further. Make a Facebook and Twitter page for your site, and invite other authors on your site to join it. Share the content there as well, and respond to the comments of your followers.
John Dosic – Website development expert
41. Use an adequate theme for a blogging website – There are various themes you can use in the process of web design. For a good blogging platform, it is imperative that you look up which of the themes are best suited for blog websites.
42. Make sure people can navigate easily through your blog – Do not make the site too confusing. Perform various tests to get a second opinion, and to see if people can easily reach the page they are after.
43. Create custom 404 pages – It’s fun to have custom 404 pages. Everyone is doing this. You can find a funny picture or you can Photoshop your own picture in which you are holding a white board with 404 written on it.
44. Learn SEO basics – For the purpose of ranking well on Google and other search engines, it would be wise to learn some SEO basics. It will help you organize your content and drive your focus in the right direction.
45. Make a good “about me” page – share all the interesting information about you in a way that they not only get to know you better but also get impressed and feel more connected to you.
There you have it! 45 blogging tips from the FirstSiteGuide team of experts. If you have any further questions, please post them in the comment section below – they’ll be happy to answer them.
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