Battling blogger’s block? We’ve all been there, especially me! The good news is inspiration is just around the corner. Let’s explore together in this short and sweet post, some strong and creative strategies to reignite your blogging passion.

1. Explore Your Passions:

Start by delving into your own interests. What makes you tick? Your genuine enthusiasm will shine through in your writing, creating engaging and authentic content.

2. Trendspotting:

Keep your finger on the pulse of trending topics. From social media to news outlets, identify what’s capturing people’s attention. It’s a great way to stay relevant and spark ideas.

3. Engage with Your Audience:

Your audience is a goldmine of inspiration. Interact with them through comments, surveys, or social media polls. Understand their preferences, challenges, and what they want to read about.

4. Everyday Inspiration:

Don’t underestimate the power of the ordinary. Everyday experiences can be the catalyst for unique and relatable content. Share your personal insights, and you might find a treasure trove of blog-worthy material.

5. Fresh Perspectives on Familiar Subjects:

Take a new angle on familiar subjects. Whether it’s a well-discussed topic or a niche you’re passionate about, your fresh perspective can breathe new life into your content and attract a broader audience.

All blogging slumps are temporary. By tapping into your passions, staying current with trends, engaging your audience, and finding inspiration in everyday life, you’ll not only overcome blogger’s block but also create content that resonates with your readers. Good luck and Happy blogging!

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising has become a cornerstone of online marketing, allowing businesses to reach their target audience with precision and control. Right now, I want to delve into the key aspects of PPC advertising, offering insights for both beginners and seasoned marketers. Let us begin?

 Let’s start with the basics:

PPC is an online advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked. It’s a cost-effective way to drive targeted traffic to a website, with popular platforms including Google Ads and Bing Ads.

PPC operates on an auction-based system, where advertisers bid on keywords relevant to their target audience. The ad placement is determined by a combination of bid amount and quality score, which assesses the relevance and quality of the ad.

In order for PPC advertising to work for you, first realize that effective PPC campaigns begin with thorough keyword research. Identifying relevant keywords ensures your ads are shown to users actively searching for your products or services. Tools like Google Keyword Planner can aid in this process.

You will need compelling ad copy and visuals that are crucial for attracting clicks. Craft concise and persuasive copy that highlights unique selling propositions. Utilize eye-catching visuals to enhance ad appeal. Also, a well-optimized landing page is vital for converting clicks into meaningful actions. Ensure a seamless user experience, relevant content, and a clear call-to-action on the landing page.

Careful budgeting is also essential in PPC advertising. Set a daily or monthly budget based on your marketing goals. Explore bidding strategies like manual bidding, automated bidding, or target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) to optimize ad performance.

It is important to enhance the visibility and relevance of your ads by utilizing ad extensions as well. These additional snippets of information provide users with more details about your products or services, increasing the likelihood of engagement.

Lastly, implement tracking tools, such as Google Analytics or the tracking features within PPC platforms, to measure the performance of your campaigns. Analyze metrics like click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and return on ad spend (ROAS) to refine your strategy. Continuously refine your PPC campaigns through A/B testing. Experiment with different ad copies, visuals, and landing pages to identify what resonates best with your target audience.

PPC is an ever-evolving landscape. Regularly review and adjust your campaigns based on performance data. Stay informed about industry trends and platform updates to adapt your strategy accordingly. Mastering PPC advertising requires a strategic approach, combining keyword research, compelling creatives, and ongoing optimization. By understanding the intricacies of the auction-based system and utilizing available tools, businesses can harness the power of PPC to drive targeted traffic and achieve marketing objectives. I hope that this short but detailed explanation helps you understand the basics of Pay Per Click Advertising!

In today’s digital age, the landscape of marketing has evolved dramatically. Traditional advertising methods are no longer sufficient to reach and engage with the modern consumer. To succeed in the business world, you must embrace digital marketing. In this particular post, I’ll explore the fundamentals of digital marketing and provide you with valuable insights to kickstart your journey into this dynamic field.

Understanding Digital Marketing

Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of strategies and channels that utilize digital platforms to promote products, services, or brands. It’s about connecting with your target audience online, where they spend a significant amount of their time.

Over the next week, I will go into the details of of the KEY COMPONENTS OF DIGITAL MARKETING.

What are the Key Components of Digital Marketing???

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is the practice of optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search engine results. It’s crucial for increasing organic (non-paid) traffic to your website.
2. Content Marketing: High-quality, relevant content is the backbone of digital marketing. Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable content to attract and engage your audience.
3. Social Media Marketing: Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are powerful tools for reaching a vast audience. Effective social media marketing involves creating compelling content and engaging with your followers.
4. Email Marketing: Email remains one of the most effective ways to communicate with your audience. Building an email list and sending targeted messages can drive conversions and customer loyalty.
5. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: PPC advertising allows you to display ads on search engines and social media platforms. You pay when a user clicks on your ad, making it a cost-effective way to drive traffic.
6. Affiliate Marketing: This involves partnering with individuals or other businesses to promote your products or services. You pay a commission for every sale generated through their efforts.

Getting Started with Digital Marketing

1. Set Clear Goals: Before diving into digital marketing, define your objectives. Are you looking to increase website traffic, boost sales, or improve brand awareness? Clear goals will guide your strategy.
2. Know Your Audience: Understanding your target audience’s preferences, needs, and behaviors is essential. Create buyer personas to help tailor your content and messaging.
3. Build a Strong Online Presence: Your website is your digital storefront. Ensure it’s user-friendly, mobile-responsive, and optimized for search engines.
4. Create High-Quality Content: Develop a content strategy that resonates with your audience. Consistently produce valuable content, whether it’s blog posts, videos, infographics, or podcasts.
5. Leverage Social Media: Choose the platforms that align with your target audience and industry. Post regularly, engage with your followers, and use social media advertising when appropriate.
6. Optimize for SEO: Research relevant keywords, optimize your website’s on-page elements, and create a backlink strategy to improve your search engine rankings.

Measuring Success

One of the significant advantages of digital marketing is the ability to track and measure your efforts. Here are some key metrics to monitor:

1. Website Traffic: Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor the number of visitors, pageviews, and user behavior on your site.
2. Conversion Rate: Measure how many visitors take desired actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for your newsletter.
3. Click-Through Rate (CTR): In PPC advertising and email marketing, CTR indicates how effective your campaigns are at driving clicks.
4. Return on Investment (ROI): Calculate the ROI for your digital marketing campaigns to determine their cost-effectiveness.
5. Social Media Engagement: Track likes, shares, comments, and follower growth to gauge your social media success.

Staying Updated

Digital marketing is a rapidly evolving field. To stay competitive, you must stay informed about the latest trends, technologies, and algorithm updates. Follow industry blogs, attend webinars, and consider joining professional organizations.

Challenges and Pitfalls

While digital marketing offers tremendous opportunities, it also presents challenges:

1. Overwhelming Complexity: The sheer number of digital marketing channels and strategies can be overwhelming. Start with the basics and gradually expand your efforts.
2. Algorithm Changes: Platforms like Google and social media networks frequently update their algorithms. Be prepared to adapt your strategies accordingly.
3. Data Privacy: Increasing concerns about data privacy may affect the way you collect and use customer information. Stay compliant with relevant regulations.
4. Competition: The digital space is crowded, making it challenging to stand out. Differentiate your brand with unique value propositions.

Digital marketing is an essential component of any successful business strategy in the digital age. By understanding its key components, setting clear goals, and consistently delivering valuable content to your target audience, you can harness the power of digital marketing to grow your brand and drive results.

Remember that digital marketing is a journey of continuous learning and adaptation. Embrace its ever-evolving nature, stay informed, and be prepared to pivot your strategies as the digital landscape evolves. With dedication and the right approach, digital marketing can be a game-changer for your business.

So, what are you waiting for? Start your digital marketing journey today and unlock the vast potential it holds for your business’s success.

Writing blog posts can be daunting, especially when you don’t know where to start, but it doesn’t have to be. This article will help you understand the basic elements of writing a blog post and how you can use them to craft solid content that won’t leave your audience confused or bored.

One of the most crucial component of a blog post is who the author is. Readers are interested in you and your message because you are their guide through whatever content you’re sharing with them. Make sure you introduce yourself and let the audience know why you’re writing the blog post and what they can expect from you.

A well-written blog post should be easy to read and understand. The author should be able to answer all questions that his audience might ask him through his words. This article guides the reader through the basics of writing a blog post.

Elements of a Good Blog Post

A great blog post is more than just words spilling onto the page.
A lot goes into writing a truly effective blog post, from choosing your title to crafting an engaging introduction. These elements make sure your audience wants to read your post and wants to take action after reading it.
Properly choose your title:
This is one of the most important parts of the blog post because it’s the title that will either draw people to your article or make them leave. The title should be short and catchy, but it should also tell people what you’re talking about in that blog post.
Hook your readers with the writing.
You can achieve the above by having the right opening paragraph and arousing interest. You always want to start your blog post with an interesting headline that grabs the reader’s attention. You also want to get straight into the article’s meat because most readers won’t bother reading the full article if it doesn’t interest them in the first few paragraphs.
Be reasonable with your subject lines and landing pages.
Bounce or keep the reader interested enough to stay longer. It’s important to be prudent with your subject lines and landing pages. Don’t just write the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a blog post because you don’t want to confuse people or make them wonder what the point of your blog will be.
Traverse to connect with your audience.
Take action at the end of your post and encourage discussion. You need to build a relationship with your audience, and the best way to do that is by being generous, giving your time, and being authentic. Remember that you don’t have to know everything, and you don’t have to be perfect, but you need to be vulnerable.

Steps of Writing a Blog Post

Writing blog posts can be challenging. But sometimes, the hardest part is coming up with ideas. This article offers nine steps to ensure your blog post will convert.

1. Start with a good title. What is the main idea of the blog post? The writer can break down the post into a few main points to make it concise with a clear direction. The best way to get this down is first to answer these questions:
   • What is the blog post about?
   • What problem is the blog post solving or answering?
   • What is the solution?
   • What resources are needed to implement the solution?
   • What can the reader do next?
2. Create a headline. A blog post headline is vital in converting visitors into readers. High-impact headlines grab people’s attention and make them want to learn more. The best headlines also make people want to share the content on social media, driving more traffic back to your site. To create a great headline, answer these questions:
   • What emotion do you want to provoke in your clients?
   • Are you making them angry or happy?
3. Write the post. Once you have figured out what your readers want, start writing. Write the blog post that you know your audience wants to read. Write something interesting to you and your target audience. Throughout your writing, you’ll naturally discover your voice and style. When you know what you’re writing about, this will come much more easily.
4. Write the summary. To help readers get the most out of your blog, you need to entice them with a summary. A reader who is just skimming through might not see the actual article and instead skip to another post. Your blog summary should have elements that make readers want to read your full blog posts, such as a powerful headline, an interesting image, or an intriguing pull quote.
5. Use a catchy image. Using a catchy image is a great way to grab your audience’s attention and make them want to click through to your site. Don’t include a photo of yourself as the main image because you risk looking like you’re just promoting yourself, which can be off-putting to your readers.
6. Publish the blog. Once you’ve written a blog post, the next step is to publish it and share it with your subscribers. Publish your posts on the right channels. There are certain places where your content will make more sense to readers. That’s why there are many social media plugins available and why most people link back to their original content on their website or social media profile.

Conclusion

Blogging is a lot of work and takes a lot of time, but if you’re passionate about what you do, then you’ll never want to stop. It’s important to remember that your online presence doesn’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s. Keep your unique style, showcase your uniqueness, and show what makes you truly special.

Is it your goal to get thousands, even millions of readers to your blog each month? It can be an achievable dream, added by the helpful tool of keyword research.

Check out the graph above. FirstStepBlogging is a brand new website of mine. I started it in late December of 2020, less than a month ago. I intend on using keyword search and applying it to Firststepblogging‘s blog starting TODAY– so follow me for updates. It is my goal to get 10,000 monthly visits by this time in 2023. Lets see if I can do it… I want to show you all that Keyword Research can, and does help!

It also certainly helps to have awesome content on your website, and word of mouth goes along way on social media platforms – so, look at keyword research as a compliment to a successful SEO campaign for your blog or website.

Moving forward, this article is intended as an introduction to keyword research for beginners although I have to say with some pride that it also features quite a bit of information available for every level blogger or business owner starting a new website.

So, What Is Keyword Research?

First the bare-bones basics. What is a keyword or keyword phrase?

This one is really simple. A keyword or keyword phrase is a collection of words people use to obtain results from Google and other search engines.

For example, a person could type in the word acne and get 260,0000 million results but narrow it down to adult acne, and get half as many results.

A person could type in how to prevent acne, and get less searches, type in acne creams and get a different number of searches and type in acne doctors in Boston and get completely different results.

The purpose of keyword research is to determine as much as possible the number of keywords that people are searching for and provide useful solutions for Google to choose your website over another when people do a search.

Notice I bolded the word useful. That’s because Google is far more than finding the number of keyword searches that people are searching for and expecting that if you have more of those keywords, that Google will place you high up in the rankings.

Some keywords are totally impractical to expect results for.

Let’s say you are a small mom and pop hamburger restaurant in Los Angeles and you claim to have the Best Hamburgers in Los Angeles.

Says who? You alone as the owner?

Don’t expect to get a lot of searches (in fact, more than likely you can expect just one or two searches in an entire year) if you are lucky.

If your restaurant happens to be reviewed by the Los Angeles Times food critic, then perhaps you can expect quite a few more searches.

But if you have a niche, say you are imitating the famous $777 burger in Las Vegas which features Kobe beef burger you will narrow the odds, and if you serve as the $777 Kobe beef burger with lobster, you’ll narrow things down even further.

How important is keyword research?

Well, according to a study of 1 billion websites (that’s right, you read it correctly, 1 billion) over 90 percent of websites get zero organic search engine traffic from Google.

And a significant reason why according to AHREF.com? Terrible link building. Google uses link building as its #3 criteria, yet 66.31 percent of all those billion websites don’t even have a single backlink. An additional 26 percent of all websites have 1 to 3 backlinks.

When determining keywords for your campaign, begin with making a list of relative topics or seed words in which to begin.

For example, if you sell coffee machines, you might want to list espresso machines,
cappuccino machines, French press machines, and the like.

These seed words are not the ones to target in themselves as they are still too common, but they are basic categories that you can use to build your list of keywords underneath.

Besides doing research on keywords, most blogs and businesses spend the vast majority of their time focusing on long-tail keywords.

What are long-tail keywords? They are searches that are very specific.

For example, if a company sells olive oil, a search for Spanish olive oil will yield millions of results. You will get better results by advertising Arbequina olive oil.

However, that is probably still too broad. Single source Arbequina olive oil will probably be the broadest longtail keyword you will likely want to use.

Organic Arbequina single source olive oil will probably be better, and custom made single source Arbequina olive oil will be better yet.

The idea is to narrow down your keywords into very specific searches that only a few providers will mention and only a few people here and there will search for.

Why? Because people who get very specific in their searches tend to be very motivated to buy.

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of keywords and long-tail words, your effort is not done there.

That said, Here are the Steps:

The first thing you want to know is how your competitors use keywords.

First of all, be honest when you talk about competitors. If you own a used car lot in Brooklyn, New York, your competitors are. They are not the 425 auto dealerships in New York City. They are just the 20 or so local used car dealers in Brooklyn.

Don’t focus on the keywords your local Mercedes dealership uses unless you also feature a lot of Mercedes on your lot.

Be very focused. On the other hand, by searching all 20 local used car dealerships, you can learn a lot about what others are focusing on.

Once you have identified all the keywords they are using, do a search for synonyms as well. For example, there is more than one way to say luxury automobile.

One longtail search word might be an “opulent used automobile. Another might be “high-end automobile.” A third might be “slightly used luxury automobile”

Thirdly, you will want to use a Keyword Research Tool.

Keyword searching is very difficult without a keyword research tool. There are literally dozens out there, and if you are at all serious about conducting an effective SEO campaign, they are well worth the money.

Without a keyword research tool, you will be missing many effective keywords you can try to exploit.

A typical keyword tool will go through millions of keywords and predict with up to 90 percent accuracy how much search volume a keyword will likely provide.

A key factor in obtaining a keyword research tool is what is known as SERP analysis.

Using SERP analysis, your keyword tool will help you analyze exactly why your competitors may be ranking higher than you.

For example, you may be using better keywords on your Vito’s moving site than your competitors but they may be ranking higher because they have more backlinks, are optimized for speed and mobile, and more.

Remember that keywords are just a part of your overall ranking, rather than the entire picture. To rank high, you have to present the complete package.

Realize too, that to Google, content is king. Google doesn’t really care about whether you get business or not. But if in the case of our Brooklyn used auto dealer, if you frequently run articles about how to buy a used car, how to finance them, how to check them out before you buy etc, then Google will reward you for this.

So never forget, content is paramount to Google and plays a huge part in how you rank,

SEO guru Neil Patel has a lot to say about keywords. For example, he has an entire article about obtaining 20,000 or more visitors using longtail words.

One of the questions he is frequently asked is how long should a longtail word be.
And his answer is to use various synonyms of 4 words or longer.

For example, in the fitness category, off the cuff, he lists 8 examples including catchy names for fitness programs and fitness programs USA weight loss.

Note how the latter is a very specific keyword combination as it pairs fitness programs, in the USA that produce weight loss.

If the program was a Yoga program, a similar keyword combo might be Yoga fitness programs for flexibility in the USA.

Coming up with those various keyword combos can be a very tedious process if you attempt to do it by hand, so when you plan your SEO campaign, do yourself a favor and first buy yourself a keyword tool.

Note that many keyword tools can be obtained on a trial basis for 30 days or more, and you may need to try three or more to find the best program for you.

Now, How to analyze keywords?

There are many different criteria you can use. AHREF says that among the methods available are search volume, clicks, traffic potential, keyword difficulty and cost per click.

Notice now that we are getting into very advanced waters, and the vast majority of websites may not need all the advanced features available in a keyword tool, but its nice to know they are there.

Ultimately, and to be honest, some bloggers might feel more comfortable and can make great use of a local SEO optimization company, as having only a little knowledge can be a stressful thing and also the whole idea of keyword research may become quite overwhelming when it comes to SEO campaigns.

You might feel better to have someone hold your hand and guide you to proven results, and that’s OK! Think of your goals and the reason why you’ve started a website or blog and make the decisions that work best for you.

References:

• https://ahrefs.com/blog/search-traffic-study/
• https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-do-keyword-research-ht
• https://yoast.com/focus-on-long-tail-keywords/
• https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-to-generate-20000-monthly-search-visitors-through-long-tail-traffic/

If you enjoyed this article, then please give me a shout! I can be found on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Also, sharing is caring Have you tried or do you currently use keyword research for your blog? How is it working out for you? Let me know in the comments below

Hey guys!

So… One of the first things you will want to do after deciding to start a blog, is to figure out what you want your niche to be.  A blog niche, if your not familiar with the term, is a particular subject that you want to focus your blog on.  There are blogs on everything under the sun, and I mean everything!  So, narrowing down the topic or topics of your blog is helpful, especially when you want to attract a certain type of reader and a particular traffic to your website.

Some examples of Niches would be:  women’s fashion, costume makeup, African American hair styling, local news, extreme couponing, sport fishing, American politics, and black celebrity gossip.  As I said, the ideas and possibilities of blog niches are endless.

But, perhaps you’re in a kind of rut and you know that you want to blog, but can’t think of anything in particular you would like to focus your blog on?  Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• What are your hobbies and what interests you?  What do you enjoy doing on your free time?
• What do you have skills in?  What do you bring value to? What do you enjoy working with, learning from, or creating?
• Think of your passions.  What topics move you the most?  What is your belief system or what organizations or clubs are you part of?
• How can you help people?  What are you the most knowledgeable about?  What is it that can you assist people with?

Ask yourself the above questions and write those topics down.  Ponder on them a while and think to yourself if any of those answers that you provided could be a good idea for you to write a blog about.  Certain topics are good for blogging for as a hobby, but if you want to make money blogging, you may want to do a little more research on your possible niche topics before settling on just one. Whatever the niche is that you decide to go on, make sure that you actually “like” it.  If you don’t, you may struggle with writing about it on a consistent basis.  And, if you start blogging on a particular niche then get second thoughts about it, you can always change, so don’t fret.

Once you have narrowed down your topics, search those topics on Google.

Searching your niches on google will provide you with an idea on how competitive of a topic it really is.  If there are a lot of advertisements in your search, and hundreds of thousands of pages on that topic, then there may be a lot of paid competition.  Another tool that you can use to find out how the market for your niche is, is to research keywords for your niche using a keyword research tool.  If the search volume for your keywords is less than 1000 monthly, it’s probably not worth writing about. Click Here for my detailed article on Keywords.  Google Trends is a very good online tool to use to find the trend for any topic you may want to write on.  One of the very first successful blogs I started was one on Black Celebrity Gossip.  Check out it’s trend below:

I chose black celebrity gossip back in 2008 because it was something I was very interested in at the time, and as you can see from the trend- it was very popular at the time.  I enjoyed reading and writing about music artists, actors, writers and producers.  I found it was a very easy niche that I would have no problem researching, writing, and commenting about on social media each day.

After 4 years though, I got very burned out talking about other people’s lives, and I reluctantly ended my blog on black celebrity gossip.  The goal is find a topic where you will not lose your passion  and  get easily tired.  Since then, I have two blogs- one where I about anything that I want on my personal blog- which fits me a lot better. And then FirstStepBlogging, which I started because I really love sharing what I have learned through my experiences in blogging online.  Whatever the niche you choose for yourself, you should strive to find that “perfect fit.”  Choose a niche that makes you the most comfortable.  Pick a topic that will compliment you the best, and where you can shine through your writings the brightest.  When you stand out naturally online, people will take notice.

To conclude, when you’ve finally decided what niche you want to write about, the last thing to do is to try it out.   You will not know if you’ve made a good choice until you put your feet in the water, so start the blog and see how it feels, and find out if you want to continue or not.

How did you choose your niche?  I’d love to hear about your blog and how you decided what to write on in the comment section below.  Don’t forget to leave a link to your website and please share this post!

‘Till next time…

No matter the amount of money and time you spend on your blog, you won’t go anywhere far if you don’t identify mistakes that tend to drag you down early after starting your blogging journey. You might not even realize that some behaviors are serious mistakes until you get an eye-opener. Well, you’re in the right place because this article outlines some blogging mistakes you should avoid, just keep reading.

Only Focusing on Numbers and Page Views

There’s no denying that one goal to have if you want to earn money through blogging is to get the numbers. Page views and visitors make you grow and develop your career. However, the numbers don’t mean that everyone loves your work. You might get the numbers in a single day and the next day flop if you’re not prepared well.

Don’t create content with only the numbers in mind. Focus on quality content, and those numbers and page views will just come naturally. When readers land on your blog because of the quality of the content, they’ll subscribe and not feel the need to leave any sooner.

Thinking of Ideas that Only Interest you

You’re not creating your blog for yourself, and you’re not going to be the only reader. Neither are you the intended audience. You’re going to make many ideas as soon as you start blogging. But sometimes, random ideas might only end up interesting you and not your audience. You should be thinking of good ideas for your company instead.

You shouldn’t make this blogging error because you’re blogging to help your audience grow your business. Any idea you come up with should be towards this goal and nothing else.

Paying Attention to the Negative Vibes

When you talk about starting a blog, you’re likely to meet some people who’ll put you down. People will talk you out of it. Others will promise to help turn your blog into a multi-million empire overnight, which is not possible.

If you’re thinking about starting a blog and you’re set on it, don’t think twice about it. Don’t listen to people who’ll only discourage you. Trust your instincts and believe that everything is going to work out. However, stay away from other bloggers or coaches who’ll give you impossible promises. Understand that there’s no shortcut to the top, and you have to work hard for it.

Not Responding to Readers

Ignoring your readers is one of the biggest blogging errors you can ever make. Any blogger feels glad when readers make comments and ask questions after reading their posts. But sometimes time goes by, and you haven’t answered those questions or replied to the comments.

You might at some point have a thousand responses and questions on your blog that become too overwhelming. Try filtering through them and find questions that you should answer.Even if you just respond to your readers with ‘thank yous’, it is better than nothing at all.

Blogging about Broad Topics

It’s normal to think about big topics when you’re just starting your blogging journey. It’s not bad to be ambitious, but too broad topics will not take you far. Broad topics are like an opened book and may trigger a lot of questions to answer that you might not be familiar with. Going for specific audiences is going to help attract a smaller audience and likely convert them into leads.

So, if you’re focusing on long term goals, you should start focusing on more specific niches. Take some time to brainstorm suitable topics. You should also know that choosing a title isn’t all that matters. It’s just an angle that will help steer your blog forward.

Not Writing Constantly

Not writing constantly is one of the most common blogging mistakes that many people make at the beginning of their journey. If you don’t know, this is the stage when you need to pump in as much content as possible. Well, you might not be familiar with blogging yet, and most content may look like crap in your opinion. But believe it or not, those are still very valuable.

You need to write constantly when starting so that you learn faster and so you can also put those beginner writing errors behind you. Writing constantly helps you find your voice and work your way into producing quality content. Doing it often helps you improve faster and become better with time.

When starting your blog, you probably want to be good at it. But blogging errors are there and sometimes unavoidable. The best way to go about it is to learn by trial and so that in the future you can to avoid them and improve as you become more experienced. Make sure you learn from the mistakes of others and work your way towards becoming a better blogger.

Was my list helpful to you??? Let me know in the comments below and as always, thank you for reading

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Many bloggers believe that simply sharing their blog on a social network is enough to get them the required traffic. Well, sorry to disappoint, but using any platform to promote your blog and have many readers react to it, is not easy.

But still, social media platforms are lucrative when it comes to getting the desired audience. In order to do so, you have to get everything right. Here is how using social media will work in your favor and get your blog noticed.

Social Media Hashtags are Your Best Friend

You might not have imagined this before, because hashtags look innocent but in actuality they can be very lucrative. These are just like mini promoters, which will do all the social media marketing work on your behalf. Hashtags help you target the interested and hungry traffic to your blog.

Hashtags mostly work on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Ensure your chosen hashtags work for you by targeting your readers. For instance, if your post is sharing something about blogging for beginners, consider hashtags like #FSBbeginnerblogging.

Social Media Attracts Shares

One thing that can make social media a perfect platform for your blog is the ability to share the content. You simply need to ask your audience to share your post on Facebook or retweet it. Make sure you include a call to action at the bottom of your post, and you’ll be amazed at how many shares you get.

However, sometimes you don’t have to persuade people to share your post. Post something interesting or educative and get automatic shares on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. That’s the magic of going “viral.” But ensure you stick to the rule of simplicity and clarity if you want to get any shares.

You can Integrate Social Media in Your Blog

Through social media, you can bridge the gap between popular sites and your blog. You give people who visit your blog an easy way to connect with you. They can easily reach you and share your content through social media elements integrated into the site.

You can integrate through social media buttons that allow users to interact with you. Or you can do so through share buttons that enable readers to share your content with their friends. Lastly, social media logins allow users to engage with you through comments, questions, and suggestions.

Social Media allows you to Include Visual Appeal

Posts attached to an image, gif, or a video has a unique way of inspiring interests. Nobody can ignore an image. Social media sites such as LinkedIn and Google+ allow an automatic thumbnail image display from a post. Facebook also allows the automatic display of the post image, and you can even select a different photo to display.

Being able to include an image improves the aesthetic appeal of your blog content. You can then share the post and the image on social media, and you’ll be amazed at the number of views and shares you manage to get.

You can Join Communities

Another way that social media gets your blog noticed is through communities. You can join various Facebook and LinkedIn groups relevant to your niche and share your content there. These are lucrative platforms that will help you get recognition for your blog.

But even after joining these communities, don’t be too aggressive in self-promotion least you annoy people. Make sure you start by joining conversations and answering people’s questions, just like it’s done in various forums. Once you’ve inspired some form of trust, you can now share links and posts from your blogs.

Influencers can Help Promote Your Blog

When it comes to social media marketing, there are some icons that can signal you what works and what doesn’t. Influencers are masters when it comes to engaging and sharing value. You’ll think they have the magical power to attract people and get them to share their tweets and posts.

If you want to promote something, you should understand that a huge following can help spread the word like wildfire. Make sure you follow those influencers keenly as you can get some promotion clues you can use to your advantage.

Social Media Bookmarking

Social media bookmarking has been used in the past and might not be as effective as it used to be. But this doesn’t mean it’s no longer as lucrative. You can still social bookmark your blog on high profiles and manage to command a huge audience base.

To make this effective, spend some time to bookmark, comment, share, and like other blog posts. This way, you’ll easily encourage increased activity on your post bookmarks and make your social media marketing successful.

Bottom Line

Promoting your blog on social media can be fun and engaging. There are various quick ways to promote your blog on social media and make everything work in your favor. If you do it right, the social network can be of great help when it comes to your blog’s search engine ranking.
Remember to share how you use social media to get your blog noticed and what has worked for you.

Find this information helpful? Let me know in the comment section below. What’s do you think is your favorite social media platform to use for your blog and why?

Sources

https://www.woorank.com/en/blog/promoting-your-blog-on-social-mediahttps://www.quicksprout.com/social-media-marketing-for-bloggers/https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-promote-blog-posts-using-social-media-guide-for-marketers/

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One question you may ask yourself early on in starting your blog is “How often should I post articles?”  The answer may surprise you!

You need to consider a few things when you start to plan how often you will post on your blog or website.

What is your schedule like? Do you have a full time job and plan working on your site only when you have time, or do you have all the time in the world to work on perfecting articles and other different types of posts?

What are your goals for your site?  Do you want to have a sizable readership that you plan on adding to email and subscription lists?  Will you be sharing information that is time sensitive, or rapidly changing? Do you want to increase the traffic to your website by using ever growing news and updates?

Do you plan on using Affiliate Marketing as a way of making money off of your site? You will want to have as much content as possible if you plan on going this route.

Do you plan on being the sole blogger or writer for your website, or it is a group of people contributing to the information on your site?  You can easily get more more articles published on a schedule when there is more than one person involved in participating.

What is the quality of articles that you would like to post?  Do you want to share long, thorough posts that contain a huge amount of information -usually in detail about a particular subject or problem?  If you will be posting very specific and long, detailed articles then you may not need to post as often as someone who doesn’t want to spend a long time writing and skims over the topics at hand.

Posting consistently can either make or break your blog.  The more that you post on your site, the more traffic you will eventually receive in return.

Sharing articles on social media will do nothing but help you when you post on a daily basis. Melanie Tamble from SocialMediaExaminer explains how you can effectively Promote your Blog Posts Using Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are good examples of social accounts that you should consider using when sharing articles online.  According to Melanie, the best times to post to Facebook are from 1 to 4 PM, 6 to 10 PM, and on weekends, while Twitter is 8 to 10 AM, 11 AM to 1 PM, and after work from 4 to 7 PM.  As for LinkedIn, Forbes states that experts suggest posting at noon, and early evening between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Ell of Bossgirlbloggers.com has been quite successful with using Pinterest to gain traffic to her blog and make money.  So much so, that she now offers services in Pinterest Managing as well as a Pinterest growth course.  With the receipts to prove her success, you can see that the same could be very doable for you as well with some hard work and true dedication.

But, you shouldn’t focus on publishing only to draw traffic to your blog- the content that you post should aim at ranking at a search engines and drawing the right traffic that will continue to come back to your site, eventually providing passive income.

So, the short answer to the question of how often you should blog is… drum roll please-

However much you want to!  Do what you feel is best for you, considering your goals and your dreams for your website or blog.  Then, go for it

One of the very first decisions that you will make after deciding to start a blog, will be on where you want your blog to be hosted.  But, if your not familiar what web hosting even is, read on.

Web Hosting providers provide you the service of making your website easily accessible on the World Wide Web. A Web Hosting provider provides space on their servers for you to store your files needed for your website(s).  Every website online is on some type of server.

Choosing a Web Hosting provider is important for you because you literally need a place for your website or websites to “stay” or “live”.   So, you will definitely want to choose the best one suited to your needs, your goals, and your affordability.

There are different types of hosting: Shared, VPS, Dedicated, WordPress, Reseller and Cloud.  Take your time in deciding what kind of hosting is the best for you.  I will explain the difference in each, below.

Shared Hosting is probably the most affordable, and the first choice for those new to blogging and wanting to focus on only one website.  Small businesses would also fair well using a shared hosting account. In essence, you will be sharing a server equally with multiple other websites- thus why it’s named what it is.  You will have a limited amount of storage for your website that you can use, and your website may lag from time to time due to traffic pick up on other websites or too many websites being hosted on the same server.

VPS, or Virtual Private Service hosting is similar to Shared hosting in which you are using the same server as multiple other paying customers.  The difference is the amount of people you will be sharing with is much lower than with a shared hosting account, and you will have “dedicated” or private server space just for you.

Dedicated service simply is when you have access to a server all on your own and are not sharing with anyone.  It’s more costly to have dedicated hosting but may very well be worth it if you have a fast growing website with increasing traffic that needs to be managed.  You will have complete control over your server which includes it’s security.  That added element can be important for you especially if you are accepting payments on your website for various products and/or services.

WordPress hosting.  If you have made the decision to use WordPress software to build your website or blog, then you may choose WordPress hosting because it has been optimized best for WordPress software needs.  You don’t have to use WordPress hosting in order to use WordPress web software, but it is an option.  Also, you will find in your research of this particular service that there is Free WordPress hosting, Shared WordPress hosting, and Managed WordPress hosting so you have some options.

Reseller hosting is when you sign up with a hosting company, open a reseller account, brand yourself and then resell that web hosting at a markup.  If your tech savvy and interested in possibly making some money by reselling web hosting you could look into this, and web designers and developers may see it as a great opportunity to offer web hosting along with their own products.

Cloud hosting is a service that uses multiple servers in various different places. Your website or blog would be hosted in the “cloud” computing platform. The cloud is the internet and your sites would be stored on internet servers.  Whatever company you use for cloud hosting can switch your website to various servers to deal with the stress of performance spikes and other issues.

Now that you know the difference between different hosting, which Provider is right for you?

Using these eight tips can assist in you deciding what Hosting Provider is best for you.

1.  Ask yourself what are your goals?  Do you want to have one website or multiple? How much traffic do you want to have or do you predict for the future?
2. Ask yourself how much customer support do you need?  Are you tech savvy and know the ins and outs of servers, building websites,and how much space that you need?  Can you handle security breaches on your own if you were hacked? Take how much help you will need and factor it in your decision making when choosing a hosting company and plan.
3. Pay for and register your own domain name in case things don’t work out with one hosting company. If things go sour or you just think another company will work better for your needs, you can then transfer your domain name with minimal effort.
4. Understanding the difference in servers and what they provide will help you choose what company and plan is best for you.  Take your time as there are tons of hosting companies to choose from and all have their pros and cons.
5. If you want personalized email, hosting companies provide that too and for different costs depending on your needs.  If this is something necessary for you, compare prices before deciding.
6. Security should be important to you as sometimes you may not be able to avoid it but hacking is a possibility when starting a website or blog.  Hosting companies have different options of security and many come with an extra cost.  Research this and find what is best for you.
7. Hosting companies will offer many features such as their reliability, cheap cost, amount of domains, amount of websites, network speed, technical support, web site consulting, SEO services and advertising credits. Some of these you may not need or ever use.  Make sure you get the most bang for your buck by paying for exactly what you need.
8. Finally, how much are you willing to spend?  Set an amount for yourself and then research for whats most affordable for you with the best features from there.  Don’t go broke while trying to build a website.  Starting new takes time, and it may take you a little while to see monetary gain from it, if that is your goal.

Like I mentioned before, there are tons of hosting providers and it’s good to take a few days to check out the pros and cons of many.  I personally use Hostgator and have been happy with their customer service as well as their cost for keeping my websites running. Check out cnet.com’s article on the Best Web hosting providers of 2020, Hostgator is among the list. A google search for web hosting providers can also easily get you started.

Have you already choose a hosting provider?  What were the factors in you making your decision?  I would love to hear from you so leave a comment!

Additional resources:

• What is wordpress Hosting -themeisle.com
• What is VPS Hosting -hostinger.com
• What is Reseller Hosting  -inmoionhosting.com
• How much does Website Hosting Cost in 2020 -webhostingsecretrevealed