Blogging

Starting a Blog in 2021: What You Need to Know

Dec 23, 2020 | Blogging

Blogging can be quite fun and lucrative if done correctly. While some people blog for fun, others have taken it as a career. Some people blog full-time while others blog part-time. All these are ways on how to make an extra buck out of blogging. But what is blogging? You might ask. In layman’s terms, blogging can be described as a web-based journey where bloggers share their thoughts on various issues or topics, be it financial, family, law, or entertainment.

Interestingly, there are so many people who’ve made blogging their main source of income and are enjoying the fruits of their labor this way. All it takes is time to find relatable topics you can engage your audience with and you are good to go. But there’s more to blogging than meets the eye. These might have to do with the logistics that come with it as well as the other nitty gritties that will be discussed below. Here’s what you need to know if you are looking to start blogging in 2021.

Learn SEO

Before you even start your blog, you should have the basic knowledge of how SEO (search engine optimization) will affect your blog site. Not so many bloggers realize this but SEO is the bread and butter of most if not all blogs. This is among the ways you can improve and boost your online presence without much of a sweat.

Today, and as it turns out, content is still king! There are so many people who are after quality content and if you have not invested in the right SEO practices for your blog, then you might as well quit. Sadaf, the blog owner at https://massilah.com, provides good blogging tips and insights as well as the best SEO practices to utilize if you are to generate more traffic from the known search engines. Among such practices include:

Ensure that your URLs are specific, meaningful, and relevant
Include post titles that are eye-catching and compelling
Keyword placement is also a major area of concern as those placed within the first paragraphs help to rank your posts higher on search engines
Ensure that your content is top-notch stuff
When using images, be sure that the images are optimized for search engines
Do not compromise on your blog’s loading speeds

Identify Your Niche

To start a blog, you need to identify a niche, which means coming up with relative topics that you’ll be good at. Your blog posts should have a theme and to find one, you need to address issues that affect you or topics that your audience can relate with. Think of it as a marketing platform. Most bloggers will concentrate their posts on their passions, talents, or hobbies. However, it would be best if you started with an area you are passionate about because come to think about it, you can not go wrong with following your dreams. This helps to ensure consistency and originality.

When it comes to choosing your niche, choose your niche based on the audience revenue potential. Your niche should enable you to solve most of the problems your audience encounters. The challenges you solve also need to be too dire that your audience can be willing to spend some money and time on.

Most people have gone into affiliate marketing as a result of blogging. Affiliate marketers will recommend consumers to businesses, products, and services. This means that at the end of the day, they’ll be making commissions on every sale made through them. You could also maximize your professional leverage by having a deeper understanding of your clients’ needs. By this, it means researching the most competitive keywords.

Write Down The Goals Of Your Blog

Starting a new blog requires a lot of discipline and consistency. Once you’ve identified your niche, you need to keep track of everything including your motivations, content, goals, and ideas. Set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely goals. Build the profile of your blog through unique value propositions. Write down your blog’s headline and subheadings. Create your blog’s elevator pitch on how you would market your blog to an audience in a few seconds. Consider your clients’ needs and how you are going to categorize your blog.

Come Up With A Domain Name

You’ll, of course, want to be associated with your blog and this is mainly the identifying factor when creating a blog. A blog extension name will be key to your audience identifying with your content. This will be your brand and it’s of utmost importance that you invest heavily in it to ensure that it will resonate in the minds of your audience for time to come. Your domain name should be catchy, short to the point, must include specific keywords, and should be easy to type.

Create A Budget

There will be costs to be met when starting a blog. You’ll most definitely need hosting services from the best web hosting companies if you are to get the most out of your blogging. Needless to mention is the fact that it costs to create an effective and efficient domain name. Other costs to factor in include:

Hardware costs
Marketing tools
Content creation
Creating a website
Plugin development
Managing your blogging team

Launching Your First Blog Post

It will cost you time and money to see your first blog post go online. It will cost you even more if you are to see your blog posts attract more traffic. But with advancements in technology and the various paid blogging services, this shouldn’t take time. As a newbie, you might consider utilizing the WordPress blog option. But then again, it would still be meaningless if you’ll not have invested the time to create a great domain name, marketing yourself, or creating quality content.

You might, while at it, consider enlisting a blogging company to help provide you with the services you need in consistently supplying your audience with quality content, in social engagement, and in meeting your objectives and goals.

To start a blog, you need to have a profitable niche where you can use your passion, professional experience, and skills to fill. Having measurable goals is key to helping you achieve the focus of your blog. The audience, marketability, and knowledge should guide your choice of a blog.

Why Starting a New Blog Still Makes Sense in an Overcrowded Internet

Nov 28, 2020 | Blogging

Are you thinking about starting a new blog of your own? Maybe you’ve heard that it can help grow your business, or even your personal brand? In either scenario, with the internet being more saturated than ever before, you might also be thinking if it’s even worth your time and effort to start a blog… if this is the case, it most definitely is!

Today we are going to highlight some of the many different reasons why right now is the best time to start a new website or blog of your own.

WordPress Makes Blogging and Site Creation Easy

Of the many different reasons on why it might be a good idea to start a blog, one of the most obvious is that it’s extremely easy to do. Thanks to the power of WordPress, anyone can create a website or blog in a matter of minutes, without ever needing to know how to design, program or be an online marker.

WordPress has completely changed the landscape of the internet, and it now powers more than 30% of all sites on the internet today. And when you factor in that there are now more than a billion sites online, that’s hundreds of millions of sites relying on what WP has to offer.

What started out as a simple solution for content creation, has now evolved into one of the most revolutionary platforms and companies on the internet today. And it’s also powering websites for big name brands like TechCrunch, The New Yorker, BBC America, Variety, Sony Music and more.

And when you consider the thousands of plugins and themes available for WordPress, the opportunities when using the CMS is pretty much limitless.

Blogging Brings Authority to Your Name and Expertise

The world of blogging is vast in all directions, and you never know what new opportunities might come as a result of it. The important thing is that you get started sooner than later.

Names like Michael Arrington, Timothy Sykes, Gary Vaynerchuk, Perez Hilton and Harvey Levin all started with blogging, and then turned their content, site expertise and brands into much more as a result of it.

And with so many successful stories on people, brands and businesses starting from simple blog ideas, there is always a new supply of people looking to get started with a blog of their own as well.

Another perfect example of this can be seen in Neil Patel’s reference guide on how to start a blog. If anyone can attest to the power of blogging, it would be Neil, as he currently has one of the most popular blogs and marketing resources on the internet.

Not only has Neil created a resource online to make it easy for people to walk through a simple process for starting a blog of their own, he’s also leveraged the content and traffic on his blog to generate over seven figures per year as a blogger.

If that doesn’t have you inspired and ready to start your blog, I’m not sure what will.

Blogging is Making Hobby and Part-Time Bloggers Money

As previously highlighted, many individuals that enter into the world of blogging, just do so as a part-time hobby or to just see what all the fuss is about. Many of these bloggers will often stop posting content because they don’t see immediate results, and then their sites eventually die out.

However, there are also some blog owners that will absolutely fall in love with the process and pour an endless amount of time and effort into their content, influencing others and eventually building out a successful brand and business of their own.

The great thing about blogging is that the financial commitment in the beginning is so minimal that anyone can get started. And if your site does go on to gain an audience and rank in the search results or even go viral on social media, there is a great chance you can start making some good money with it as well.

When it comes to the monetization of a blog, there are plenty of ways to accomplish it. Some of the most common methods include:

Affiliate Marketing – Earning a commission on referred sales and leads.
Google Adsense – Placing ads on your site and getting paid per click.
Selling Digital Products – Creating online courses or membership sites.
Offering Premium Services – Selling consulting services from your site.
Amazon Associates Program – Make money linking to Amazon products.

Depending on the focus and niche of your site, each of these methods will perform differently. In either scenario, the important thing is that you don’t jeopardize your site content and audience at the expense of trying to make some money.

Businesses Rely on Blogs for Lead Generation and Sales

In the world of blogging, few things are more important than content. And when you start thinking about the different industries and niche markets out there, some are easier to write for than others.

This is especially true in the world of ecommerce and products. After all, how much can possibly be said about a single product or category on your site. Through the use of blogging, you can come up with much more interesting topics and talking points, while also linking back and highlighting various products or services on your main site.

As pointed out by Smart Insights when they were discussing this same topic, they came up with the following three reasons on why blogging is still important for businesses and brands looking to generate leads online.

It helps drive more (targeted) traffic to your website
Blogging gives your visitors a reason to convert
It’s one of the most cost-effective long-term strategies

It’s one thing to have a business or ecommerce site online, and it’s another to have it backed by a powerful blog that continually brings in new traffic through search engines and social media on a daily basis. If you aren’t currently leveraging the power of content creation and blogging for your online brand or business, you’re definitely missing out.

Starting a Blog is Easy. So get started today!

Jumping back to the question we started off at the beginning of the article, “is it worth your time to start a blog with how saturated the internet is today”… the answer is still YES!

And after reading through the many different reasons why and examples of blogging success above, you should definitely feel the same way.

If you are a business or brand, there is absolutely no valid excuse for you to not have a blog of your own. And if you are someone that is just sitting there with the idea of blogging in your head, it’s a win-win situation, and if it doesn’t work out for you, at least you tried it.

With social media and mobile usage now growing at faster rates than ever before, more people are accessing the internet than ever. And with more people accessing the internet, they are all looking for better content to find information, be entertained, and to help them solve their problems or unanswered questions.

If you would like to have your own little space on the internet, while also catering to such audience needs, right now is the best time for you to get started with a blog of your own.

Wait! Don’t forget to check out these related articles:

6 Tips for Starting a Successful Design Business

Oct 7, 2020 | infographic, Seo, website

You are a design expert with a dream of starting your own business, but launching a new business is challenging. Creating a strategy and calculating numbers can be overwhelming to people without a business degree. However, the good news is that these skills can be taught and accomplished through measurable steps.

As long as you have a talent and passion for design, opening your own design business is completely possible. With hard work and determination, your dream can become a reality.

Below are 6 tips for starting your own successful design business:

1. Create a Business Plan

Before you can begin spending money and earning clients, you must create a business plan. A business plan will outline the basics of your business. It will highlight your company’s goals, finances, marketing, staffing, organization, and much more.

Begin by creating a business plan draft that covers the fundamental aspects of your new business. With a basic understanding of the path and plan for your business, you will be able to begin making progress towards your goal.

As your business ideas grow, your business plan should grow as well. View your business plan as a living document. Don’t be afraid to alter your plan as you gain new insights or important changes. Because your grasp of how businesses work will gradually develop as you go through the process, your business plan should change to reflect your deeper understanding of business.

Creating and developing a solid business plan is essential for starting a successful design business. Your plan will assist you in making decisions throughout the entire process while helping you keep your eyes on the overall purpose and goals of your business.

2. Understand the Market

Before you can enter the business market, you must first know the business market. To understand the landscape for your new design business, you must research your target market and competition.

Who is your target market? Analyze your audience to discern their needs, wants, and expectations for your business. Identifying their desires in the beginning will help you tailor your business to fit the niche you are attempting to appeal to.

Knowing your target market will also help you to develop your service offering. There are many reasons that businesses may need a designer, whether to design a website, official stationery, stickers for marketing, or something else. Consider the businesses in your target market: what are their needs? How can you help them to grow their business? Your services will be most in demand if they help your target market to solve the issues they face – so it is critical that you identify these.

Who is your competition? Research other design businesses with similar goals and services to yours. Understand their strengths and weaknesses, and utilize this information to improve upon your own business ideas and fill the gaps in the market.

Without this knowledge prior to starting your business, you will be unable to effectively reach your target market. The more time you spend researching your audience and competition, the more successful your business will be in the long run.

3. Calculate Your Finances

Small businesses are funded through a combination of personal savings and business loans. Refer to your business plan to figure out what your projected costs are for your business. Determine the amount of savings you are putting towards your business, and then calculate the amount of remaining funding you will need to get through loans. Make sure to review the terms and conditions of any loan before you begin borrowing and spending.

Once you have evaluated your finances, begin planning the purchases necessary for starting your design business. What type of technology, programs, and software will you need? Will you work from home, or do you need to purchase an office space with office supplies? Do you need to hire full-time employees or freelancers?

Calculating your finances and start-up costs is an extremely stressful part of starting a business. But if you take your time to determine what is necessary for your new business, you can come up with a budget that works for you.

4. Protect Your Dream

Don’t let your efforts towards starting a new business go to waste because you don’t protect your dream. Legal, tax, and insurance considerations are vital for ensuring that your business can survive.

What laws apply to your business? Are their special tax policies that are relevant to you? What types of insurance do you need to make sure you are fully protected?

If you ignore these important decisions, you could find yourself in a pricey mess down the road that your small business cannot afford to resolve. Take action to make the necessary precautions now to secure your business and make sure you’re covered.

5. Focus on Marketing

When you first open your design business, it may be difficult to gain new clients and make money. Because people are unaware of you and your business, it is extremely important to focus on marketing efforts early on.

Begin by establishing your brand. Ask yourself what the purpose behind your business is. Use the answer to this question to fuel your branding. Choose your colors and carefully design your website and logo to reflect your business’s purpose.

In addition, since you are starting a design business, your branding materials should showcase the quality your clients can expect. By having a clear brand, it will be easier for new customers to identify who you are and why you are unique.

Discover ways to make yourself known to the community and your target market. Design a marketing strategy that will work best for your business, and continue to reach out and make contact with potential clients. The more you put your brand in front of others, the more your business will grow.

6. Have a Growth Mindset

Now that you have the key components to start your new business, don’t forget to keep growing. If you don’t daily strive to grow your business, then you will slowly fade away.

Contemplate different ways you could grow your business. What new services could you offer? How can you increase your marketing efforts? Do you need more staff to gain more clients?

Developing a growth mindset will serve as a tool for developing new interests and remaining successful for a long time. You must dedicate yourself to your business and work hard to make sure it thrives.

Opening your own design business is stressful. With your own money on the line, it can make you hesitant to take the leap towards being your own boss. However, if you create a plan and take steps to protect your business, you will be able to launch a successful design business that will fulfill your dreams and be profitable.