Unless what you’re really asking is “for those who plan to try and flood the already-saturated blog space with more mindless self-promotion in a desperate bid to try and out-grey-SEO all the other grey-SEO blogs out there” in which case, my response is “Don’t. Go try ACTUALLY putting together something worthwhile that isn’t just another regurgitation of everyone else’s words to try and score e-points.”
That’s a good point.
Though, the thing is that many people actually “just do it” but “finishing it” and actually “generating income” is much tougher for most people.
By the way, “To just do it” actually happens to be hardest task to many people. Everyday, I see many people finding hard to “just to start”.
I have no interest in blogging, but I’ve seen people on these forums asking about getting started, and they all seem to be approaching things back-to-front. The first question they ask is “What should I write about to make money?” My response to that would be: nothing. If your sole interest is making money, then you’re unlikely to be writing things others will want to read, and if you’re having to ask what topic(s) to cover, the chances are you don’t have enough knowledge in the relevant area to produce anything worthwhile.
There are good reasons to start a blog. For example:
“If I write some articles showing folk how to use the products on my site, would people find that helpful?”
“I have a fascinating collection of eighteenth century silverware. Maybe people would be interested to read about it.”
“I love writing. I’ll write a blog about my activities for my own pleasure, and maybe others will enjoy it, too.”
All positive reasons, and none of them centred around making money. If the blog does go on to make money, or increase your sales, then that’s an added bonus. It shouldn’t be the aim, as far as I’m concerned.
First, do you really know what a blog is? The term is a shortened version of Web Log, as in a diary or journal. People have quickly degraded the meaning to be something very general. People now call articles blogs. What you are calling a blog used to be called a magazine, except just an online version.
Exactly.
Yes. I think it is no different from the dilemma that most authors and journalists are in.
There are previous questions in these forums with responses, correct?
There are a number of things that most first-time bloggers find difficult, including choosing a niche. Trying to appeal to everyone will ultimately leave you appealing to nobody. While you should admire the work of other bloggers, don’t compare yourself to them. Most successful bloggers have teams of professionals behind them, and they probably have a wide variety of talents. It’s important to remember that your niche will dictate your voice, which may not be what your audience wants.
Aside from the technical aspects of creating a blog, most people don’t read headlines and contact forms. But that’s OK, since you’re a human. And if they did, you’d get a lot of similar questions from them. So, what’s the best way to engage your audience? Creating an email newsletter and building an audience are the best ways to build a loyal following.
Plugins allow you to add functionality to your blog. Many platforms have plugins that allow you to add different functions. You can also add social following buttons to your blog through a plugin. You can also add text widgets to your sidebar. Creating a blog is not a rocket science. Just make sure that you have a healthy ecosystem of plug-ins. Plugins will make your life easier, and you can use apps to streamline the marketing process.
The layout of a blog will influence how your readers react. According to a study conducted by the University of Basel and Google, people judge a website’s functionality and beauty within just 1/20 of a second. This psychological bias, called the “Halo Effect,” extends to other aspects of your blog. A well-designed, well-organized blog is more likely to attract readers and build trust.
And for the non-technical aspects, articles, groups, books and forums for authors would be much more helpful than here. There is an abundance of such help available and there has been for many years before the internet existed.
I’m not saying you should totally ignore SEO; of course you want your well-crafted article to be found. But in my experience, good content written for humans works for search engines, too, but the opposite is seldom true. As with all things, you need balance.