Curating Content for a Blog
If the closest thing you’ve come to writing lately is a text or a tweet then, writers block can be warranted quickly. For me, going down to my local Starbuck’s or driving, always helps me to get my thoughts down onto paper or tablet. A great place to start looking to things you’re interested in. For starters, if you like to go hiking and enjoy doing it every day then, writing a blog about hiking can become your cure to writer’s block.
But first, there are so many other people who are also writing about hiking too. So, when you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, you got to make sure you are on point. Choosing a niche you’re passionate about is extremely important. It lets readers know what your blog is about and what areas you specialize in.
Once you find your niche, it’s usually a good idea to do some research and analysis on the top five current competitors within your niche. This mini analysis/spying technique can give you the four-one-one on your competitors and can give you some insight into what potential readers want.
Okay. Now that we’ve covered the basics.
Now time for some great tips:
- Try to engage readers.
• Create a comments section within your blog.
• Create feedback forms on your blogs.
This engages your readers and gives you some insight as to what works and what doesn’t.
Also, collaborating with fellow bloggers is a great way to network, but also gets your blog more exposure.
Deciding a Name
Like curating content for your blog, choosing a name for your blog can seem overwhelming. For me, performing a keyword search within your niche can be great way to choose a name for your blog.
Keyword search is great, because it helps out with search engine optimization. Based on the keywords generated this will determine your blog's page ranking on search engines. Incorporating these keywords, which relate to your blog is always a good start to choosing a name for your blog.
If you're clueless when it comes to tech terms then, buying a domain name can seem like you're trying to rest the matrix.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “domain name, address of a computer, organization, or other entity on a TCP/IP network such as the Internet.”
When you type a website into your browser and hit enter, a request is sent over to a DNS (domain name of server) if the request is satisfied then it's sent back to the user's browser in the form of a webpage.
Before buying a domain it's always a good idea to perform a quick search and check to see if the domain name is already taken.
Choosing a name for your blog can be difficult, but here are some great tips:
Use, your blog's name as your domain name.
Although, this isn't always the best route. Buying a domain name, that's already taken can give your blog great exposure.
Although, this isn't always the best route. Buying a domain name, that's already taken can give your blog give your blog great exposure. Mainly, if that's the name you were originally aiming for, but was already taken.
Narrowing down your top three names and asking friends and families to vote on social media sites, is another great way to choose a domain name.
Pricing for domain can vary and typically run in the range from $1.99 to some priciest I've seen, being $4000.00.
Sites such as GoDaddy, Host Gator, Wix, Square Space, and there are many more, but these are just a few.
Once you purchase your domain name, typically the website you've purchased your domain from provides you with instructions, on how to connect your domain over to your website.
Purchasing a Website
The next step in setting up your blog is having a site to display your blog.
They are many routes to take. Having someone build your website for you.
Some great platforms to look to are:
Fiver
Zen Desk
Upwork, which are great sources to get tasks such as these, done completely online.
This shouldn't run any more than $500.00 and too much (for me anyway).
Also, building your own website is an option. Build your own website sites offer a variety of preset templates, that the user can pick and choose from. Many of which have user friendly features of drag and drop.
Some popular website builders are:
Weebly
Wix
Squarespace
Word Press
One-to-one
Google
All offer free, basic and premium plans, with the exception being GoDaddy, which usually offers a free web-site with the purchase of a domain.
Hosting
Hosting was a very confusing to me in the beginning, but once you've started your 20th blog hosting is very simple.
Once you have your checklist of writing content, deciding on a name for your blog and domain and building your website, now's a good time to start looking for a hosting site.
Hosting provides servers where your website and all of its data stored. This service can be expensive depending if you have one sever, dedicated to your website, but is typically given to websites, which draw a lot of traffic.
Hosting on the cheap can be found on:
Bluehost.com
Rackspace
Blue Gator
Bluehost has hosting options starting as low as $1.99 ranging to $59.99 on a monthly basis.
Social Networks
Great ways to expose your blog on the cheap is by creating social media sites dedicated completely to your blog.
Some good go-to’s are:
Pinterest
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Once these social media pages are created, providing links to these sites on your blog can let readers know the latest updates on your blog.
This can also be another platform for gaining feedback into your blog and engage with collaborators, gain a new following and readers.
Generate Revenue
The competition is stiff, but there are several ways to generate revenue from blogging.
First one, is called affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing uses keywords within your blog to drive traffic to other sites with affiliate marketing programs.
• Uber
• Amazon
• EBay
All offer affiliate marketing. If you mention a product on your blog, from any of the affiliate marketing sites and a user purchases a service or a product from being mentioned on your blog, then you as the blogger would gain a certain percentage of the sale of the product or service.
The next one is affiliate advertising. The biggest platform offered right now is Google AdWords.
Google will pay you to place ads on your blog's website. There are many other companies, which offer this service.
Another method of generating revenue for your blog are creating down loadable. Down loadable is content that offers information on and for example, how-to start your own blog, website, etc., which can be offered free or for a price on your blog in a downloadable format. These formats can vary and include PDF s, videos, etc. The original form of generating a good fixed income from blogging is having more than one blog using the different methods to generate revenue as discussed. Reality check is everyone and their mother, are blogging so having all of your eggs in one basket is not always good. Having more than one blog generates revenue in different areas, so if one fails you'll have the other to fall back on.
Maintenance
After all the hard work of creating your blog, the upkeep should be fairly simple.
Always make sure, that the content on your blog is fresh, but also make sure that your social media sites mimic the same.
If readers send feedback or leave comments, make sure to respond within reasonable time.
Another and important great tip is to mention a tip that you followed from another blogger. I know what did this have to do with maintenance? A lot. If you big up a fellow blogger by mentioning their posts and tips, that equals exposure for you and fellow bloggers. Maintenance is more than being equipped with technical skills and should include science as a requisite for gaining and keeping new readers, which is constant and should be included in your blog's upkeep.
Another great way to gain exposure is to submit your website to all the major search engines. Usually, it takes a day or two, to see your blog's site within the search engine results and that's if your blog gets approved.
• Google
• Bing
• Yahoo
These search engines allow you to submit your blog's website and it's fairly simple.
Each search engine is different so the process is different. Below are some steps on how to submit your blog to all the major search engines.
To submit your blog to all the major search engines:
- Navigate over to Google's search console.
- To verify, Google is going to ask you "If you're a human?" Then, you will have to verify by selecting some pictures.
- Enter your blog's website into the box.
- Lastly, hit enter.
To submit your blog over to Bing's website:
- Navigate over to Bing's search console.
- Bing also lets you verify your identity.
- Once your identity has been verified, enter your blog's website and click submit.
- If you're interested in how to submit to other search engines, search "How to submit my website to [preferred search engine]."