Countless number of blogs is created
daily around the world, and the competition is so stiff that one begins to
wonder if a “new blog” can even succeed at all. Well, I can also tell you that
so many blogs die out after about a month of inception and just a few of them
make it through to the land of success. How
do you make you blog one those few that succeeds? That is exactly what you will learn by
the end of this article. This post will show the 12 ultimate steps you need to
take in order to create a successful and standout blog.
1. Purchase
A Domain Name:
If you want to get serious about
blogging and you intending to build a brand rather than just another
blog, a top level domain name
is a must for you.
Whenever you create a blog with the
blogging platforms available, you are given a domain which is a subdomain of
those platforms. For example, Blogger gives you something like
myblog.blogspot.com, while wordpress gives you myblog.wordpress.com. Having you
blog hosted on a sub domain makes your blog look unprofessional and also
reduces the importance people give to your blog.
These free platforms offer you a way
with which you can host your blog on your top level domain, either by
purchasing directly from them or purchasing from another domain registrar and
redirecting your blog to it.
Another major downside of using a
subdomain for your blog is that, it
makes it difficult (impossible even) to move your blog from one platform
to another.
So, get a domain name if you want to
be taken serious as blogger. You can purchase domain name(s) from domain
registrars like Godaddy or Hostgator or from the blogging platform
you use.
2.
Choose A Good Blogging Platform:
The two most popular blogging
platforms are Blogger (owned by Google)
and Wordpress (owned by the Automattic and powered by the open source wordpress software). Of course there are other blogging platforms (some free and some
paid) but these two are the most popular and most used.
The debate of “which is better between
these blogging platforms” is one which will never end especially among their
users. Before you create a blog, set to and make research about your choice of
platform and see how well it suites you.
3.
Choose A Niche For Your Blog:
Niche is the target market of your
blog. i.e. the type of audience that will read your blog. Deciding a niche for
your blog can seem to be a very daunting task, but it need not be. Examples of
niche include:
·
The
food niche
·
Travel
niche
·
Fashion
niche
·
Automobiles
·
Technology
·
Health
·
Fitness
and a whole lot more.
If you are finding it difficult to
decide on which niche to blog about, here are some tips that can be of help:
·
Blog
about something you are passionate about.
·
Blog
about something you are very good at.
·
Is
there a popular problem you know people would like to get solutions to?
·
You
can blog about you field of study
·
You
can even blog about yourself.
It is important that you research you
niche of your choice well, know who, what where your audience are and what they
need. This will guide you towards creating relevant information and make them
loyal to you. When you are able to solve their problems, they will always keep
coming back for more.
4.
Get A Good Design Template:
The look of your blog also plays a key
role in the success of your blog. If you are a design oriented person, you can
design your blog by yourself, or get a nice looking template and customize it
to your taste, but if not, it is a worthy investment for you to hire a
professional to do so for you.
The overall design of your blog is as
important as the quality of the content of your blog. We are in a generation of
click and go readers. Most people
won’t wait to view the content of your blog if you do not have an attractive
looking blog.
Mind you, a well designed blog does
not just mean beautiful but also includes properties such as: easy navigation,
fast load time, well structured etc.
5.
Create Unique And Quality Content:
After you must have fulfilled all the
above steps, the next step is to start putting quality and relevant information
on your blog. First, to create quality content, you need to get the “copy-paste” mentality off your head
because honestly, it will do your blog no good.
Unique content doesn’t necessarily
mean a never-before-seen content, but it means reinventing the wheel in a
creative manner. Plagiarism defeats the purpose of blogging which I believe is
to express your creativity. Before I write posts, I take time to read related
blogs and generate ideas from them, but this doesn’t mean our content will be the
same.
Creating quality and unique content
will earn you loyal readership, make your blog a friend of search engines and
also positions you as an authority in your niche.
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