How to Start a Blog | What is Blogging | Capital & Growth
What is Blogging
The definition of a blog is “a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.” The term blog came about when the hobby caught on and people started referring to the compilation of online content as web logs. Eventually, web log was determined to be a mouthful, after which the two words were squished together, and web log became blog. While the terminology for blogging was condensed, blogs are anything but short. As blogging becomes more prominent and common, the length of the average blog is increasing. Like everything else, blogging has evolved over time. Blogging has come a long way. An act that began as a hobby has skyrocketed into a mode of employment. In today’s day and age, some people are full-time bloggers and they generate enough revenue to rely on blogging as their sole source of income.
There are many articles about blogging and the skills that help advance your blog beyond mediocrity. If you are serious about blogging and have the determination to grow a blog, advice on how long a blog post should be is meant for you. This article relates to the recommended length of blog posts with respect to SEO. Optimizing a blog can be more work than writing content, which is a great measure all by itself. The content is very important, and it falls under the umbrella of SEO tactics, but it is not the only thing that matters. Blogging is a serious adventure and it can open doors to incredible opportunities if you travel down that path. Here is everything you need to know about starting a blog of your very own.
How to Create a Blog 101
Starting a blog is easy. Maintaining a blog is the part that takes a concerted amount of time and energy, but all the effort pays off in the long run. There are many steps to starting a blog, the first of which involves choosing a platform for your website and setting up your domain. Later in this blog post, we will dive head first into a plethora of hosting sites for bloggers. The details about each platform will teach you everything there is to know about starting a free blog. Once you have selected a platform to work with, we suggest that you purchase a domain. Some blogging platforms offer domains as part of their membership packages, but if not, there are other websites that offer domain names for purchase.From there, you should choose the theme that appeals to you most, and then customize the pages. The more original your blog’s appearance is, the more unique it will be, and that will assist you in standing out from the millions of bloggers out there. That said, there is no need to stick to a theme that you have come to dislike just because you are worried about having to redo everything. Understandable.
Adding content to pages can be quite the process, depending on how many pages you create. No need to hesitate, though. Feel free to change your theme at any point. The layout of your pages will adjust to match the theme you switched to but the content will remain intact. The next thing to consider is content. If your blog is business-related, the content should primarily reflect your brand and advertise the products or services available through your company. Brand names, logos, areas that you serve, and contact information are essential details to include on your blog. The best place for these pieces of information are within the header and footer, if you have them. If your theme allows for an About Me page, we highly recommend adding one.It helps to find a niche and cater to it, to an extent. This is not to imply that you should write what people want to read rather than compose content about your own passions. Instead, just consider that switching the focus of your content all the time will make it more difficult to keep the attention of your audience.
In a sense, you need to define your purpose. You’ll need to decide if having a variety of topics is more important to you than maintaining an audience or vice versa. Either way is totally fine, but if you strive for the latter, you will have to follow guidelines.If an audience understand your website to be a nutrition blog, but you start writing about fashion one day and then personal development the next, people who were drawn to your nutritional blog posts won’t return to read about other niche topics. There is no stability or predictability when your subject matter is all over the place. Again, that is totally fine. Just know that you may not be able to captivate as many people as you would if you stayed consistent. Networking is also very essential for bloggers. Initialing conversation with other bloggers via social media is key to gaining a following. The more you reach out to people in your niche market, the more connections you’ll make. By growing your connections, you expand your online presence as more people become aware of your blog. Blogs are the easiest and most conducive way of reaching an audience because there are no restrictions. Most blogs are non-exclusive and only the most private of bloggers protect their blogs with passwords. A blog is essentially a journal that people have the luxury of accessing from anywhere, due to its location on the internet.
Best Free Blog Sites
There are more blog platforms than you can count, but not all of them are free. Below is a list of blogging platforms that do not charge for their most basic of services. Except for Tumblr, these hosting sites offer features beyond the free services. You can create a blog for free with any of these platforms. However, some additional components are available at a cost.
An Important Detail to Know About Blog Platforms As mentioned above, you can utilize these blog platforms as your hosting site. It is important to reiterate that not all of the services provided by these sites are free. Just pay close attention to which features are complimentary versus those that come with a cost.
These platforms are referred to as “freemium” websites. Their basic options are free but anything beyond that comes with a cost. Some of these advanced options are plugins, premium themes, personalized domain names, and full ownership of your website.
Which Blog Hosting Platform is the Best?
The best of anything is always subjective. No matter what we think, you will bring your own viewpoints to the table. Think about what you want from your blog and choose your platform based on how well it match your needs.Here, we’ll shine the best possible light on each platform, discussing any perks and drawbacks, ultimately leaving the decision of which is best for you up to your discretion. After all, it’s your blog, so you’ll have the most involvement with the platform. Your blog platform should be suitable for your vision. We’ll talk about the blog types that do best with each platform to help you make an informed decision.
A lot of blogs are hosted by WordPress. The hosting site claims the majority of blogs. Its versatility definitely plays a large role in its popularity. The layout is intuitive for the most part, with live chat support or email options if you need to reach out for tech support. WordPress is for everyone and that is why its name comes up any time online platforms are brought up in conversation. The official site boasts about its presence on the web, with about 28% of all websites utilizing WordPress as the platform.
From the professional businesspeople to the casual bloggers and anyone in between, WordPress is undeniably suitable for you and your goals. WordPress even hosts some of the most official websites out there, including but not limited to Time, TechCrunch, and CNN. That fact alone brings a wealth of credibility to the company. With Wordpress, your blog is sure to exceed expectations. Choosing a hosting platform for your blog that you can have total faith in definitely makes a difference.
WordPress has an extensive selection of themes to choose from and they are separated into categories based on the purpose of the blog. Wordpress offers a variety of plans with different prices to accommodate every budget.
Wordpress Plans and Pricing
Plan Name Cost Per Month Added Benefits Free $0
One way that Blogger outranks other blog hosting sites is its offer for a free domain, no strings attached. You do not have to upgrade to a membership with a monthly fee, charged yearly, as you do with many other hosting sites. The domain just comes along with a Blogger account, right off the bat.
There are no costs associated with a Blogger account, either. The platform is similar to Tumblr in that all features are free. Google purchased Blogger back in 2003, and along with new ownership came the ability to link a Google+ account to your Blogger site. This is ideal for Google fans who like having everything in one place.
Most supporters of Blogger appreciate its simplicity. If your main focus is content creation, Blogger is straight to the point and thorough. It is important to note that Blogger does not offer much in terms of customization. There are very minimal options when it comes to themes and visual customizations for your blog. If you care about having control over the aesthetics of your blog, then we suggest looking at other hosting platforms, but if you really just want a free place to post your content, then Blogger is worth considering.
Tumblr is an online platform that appeals to a growing number of photography bloggers. The audience is also composed of a more youthful population, in comparison to other hosting sites. The platform is very straightforward and allows for a serious amount of freedom. You can select from free Tumblr themes or completely delete any code and insert your own theme. This option was so appreciated that Tumblr users started to design themes and provide the code to their followers as a way to gain more followers.The hosting site has changed a little bit after being purchased by Yahoo back in 2013. The alterations are not noticeable if you were not a Tumblr user prior to the change in ownership. Slight changes were made regarding the format of the Tumblr dashboard, which refers to the main page, as well as the algorithm that determines which posts appear first on your dashboard.Like many forms of social media, you follow other Tumblr users and the blogs that you follow curate your dashboard. Their posts will appear on your main feed and you can diverge from there by clicking on their icons. Doing so will take you away from the main page, which displays a compilation of all the blogs you follow, and redirect you to their individual Tumblr blog.
The thing about Tumblr is that it is not focused solely around producing your own content or sharing your material. It is actually referred to as microblogging, meaning that the content is circulated and there is a limit to the size capacity of each post. On Tumblr, you can either reblog or create posts in the form of text, quotes, photos, links, chat conversations, audio, and videos. The types of content are all-inclusive. However, Tumblr might feel a bit limiting because you can only be followed by fellow Tumblr users.Text posts, captioned photographs, and other content on Tumblr circulate very rapidly as long as enough attention is shown to the posts. The term reblog is the equivalent to sharing on Facebook or retweeting on Twitter. It basically means that your content was copied to another blog but the credit remains yours. The repetition of reblogs and likes on Tumblr is what causes content to go viral. The key to mastering Tumblr and producing a popular blog on this platform is to gain followers through interaction with other Tumblr users.
By engaging with them, you’ll open up lines of communication and establish a friendship.Tumblr is absolutely free with the option to monetize your blog if you so wish. You can purchase a domain to eradicate the tumblr from your URL but these domains are not offered by Tumblr. You would need to purchase an original domain from another source and then manually link it to your Tumblr, but this is not hard to do. Tumblr has instructions for doing so in their community forum.Weebly has been around for about as long as most blogging platforms. It originated in 2006, so around the time that Tumblr and Wix emerged as well. Weebly is a less used platform than its fellow blogging sites. There is no real reason for this in terms of features, tools, or usability. Weebly not only works for blogging purposes but users can also open an e-commerce store and take payments through their website. Like other blogging platforms, Weebly is free to begin, but there are advanced features available for paying customers. The upgrades that come with Weebly are associated with monthly plans, which you pay for upfront at the start of your membership.
Weebly Premium Plans
Plan Name Cost Per Month Added Benefits Free $0
Wix Premium Plans
Plan Name Cost Per Month Added Benefits Connect Domain $5
Medium is one of the lesser known platforms for online content. It is also very specific in that it caters to writers and readers. Writers, however, can apply to publish their pieces on Medium in a blog format. The writers have less control over the formatting or style because their work is uploaded to the website by the people behind Medium.
Medium also comes along with free features, with the option of upgrading your subscription to a paid membership. There is a fee of $5 per month associated with the membership. The low cost is very reasonable because it expands your access to an unlimited number of stories on Medium.
You can think of it less as a subscription fee and more of an appreciation measure for the writers on Medium. This is because you can control where your money goes! That is correct: if you like a particular author, you can designate your money to go to them.
There are even more blog platforms to choose from, beyond those that are listed in this article.
The trick to choosing the blog platform that will suit you best is to first decide what the purpose of your blog will be and what particular features you would like to have. From there, it becomes much simpler to cut your choices in half.
Coming up with Blog Post Ideas
Running a blog is an opportunity to share your knowledge on a platform that you own. The content you post on your blog is entirely up to you. However, if your aim is to gain visibility online or grow an audience, knowledge about SEO is a handy trick to keep up your sleeve all the time.
If you are more concerned about gaining traction and attention online, it is best to align your blog with a certain niche market. As we mentioned previously, we advise that your content not vary extensively. Find a topic that you could never bore of and center your blog around that subject matter. As long as you are passionate about your theme, you’ll be able to brainstorm blog post ideas relatively easily.
There are many websites that can help you with the brainstorming aspect of blogging. Keyword research is an often-overlooked tool. Online assistance likeAhrefs are available at your disposal if you are looking to appeal to the majority of web users. Ahrefs can show you keywords that you are ranking for, as well as suggest alternative keyword ideas.
If you care less about ranking tools and more about coming up with ideas consistently, there are other online features to turn to in your time of creative deficit. Many online chat rooms are great spaces for discussion among bloggers, content creators, editors, and readers.
You can always post an inquiry in search of answers to guide you towards a path of never-ending ideas. This question has definitely been asked before so the chances of finding already published responses are very high.
Another suggestion for breaking through writer’s block or sparking a light of creativity in your thought process is looking for inspiration. You can find it just about anywhere. If you run an artistic blog and cannot brainstorm any poem ideas, start writing mindlessly for three minutes. Refrain from picking up your pen. Keep writing even if all you come up with is reiteration of the same sentence. Eventually, a lightbulb will illuminate and your idea will come to you.
If you are an informational blog, think about the process of your work. Do you buy items at thrift stores and then turn them around for profit online? Compose a blog post that acts as a manual for readers who have an interest in flipping but do not know how to begin the process.
Maybe you create content for equestrians. Are there any tips you can provide for putting a harness on a pony? Do you have any secrets of the trade that can help new riders feel at ease while horseback? These may seem like common knowledge topics to you but the truth is that someone out there needs guidance. Who better to provide insight than someone who runs a blog all about their interest? No idea is insignificant. Whatever you can apply your intellect to is worth adding to your blog.
How to Write a Blog Post: Layout and Copywriting
Writing blog posts is not as simple as merely typing words, stringing together sentences, and posting the text to your blog. Blog posts, like all styles of written work, are an art form.
Layout is important. If your posts are not aesthetically pleasing, viewers are less likely to read them in entirety.
Avoid walls of text. Paragraphs should be broken up by headers, quotes, and images. Scroll through your article in a preview before pushing it live. If there is ever a point where the only thing on your screen is text, break it up. This will make it appear more consumable and less daunting to the human eye.
Length
Copywriting is an equally important part of blogging. Everything else could be in line with best practices for blogging, but if your content is questionable, inconsistent, or poorly written, nothing else matters. You cannot compensate for poor content quality with an eye-catching layout or vivid photographs. Keep your content concise, relevant, and authoritative.
SEO Blog posts can be broken down into segments. Each post should contain a main header, liberal sub-headers, a body, a meta-description, a customized slug, tags, and keywords.
There is no precise magical number that tells you how long your blog post should be because each topic is unique in its own right. The suggested length depends on your goals.
However, it has been shown that the average blog post is around 2,300 words. For an idea of what you should aim for, take a look at the competition. Your blog post on the same topic should average out to about 500-1,000 more words than the competing blog post.
Main Header and Sub-Headers. The header of a blog post is meant to intrigue an audience while simultaneously summarizing the point of the blog. Sub-headers are much the same. Though they are supposed to be more specific to a certain paragraph or section of the content, they also introduce the ideas to follow. Incorporating keywords into the H1, H2s, and H3s is key.
Body. By now, you have already convinced the reader that your blog post is worth viewing by way of the header. The body of an article refers to all the content on the page.
Meta-Description. The meta-description is that brief introductory segment that you see right below the title of web pages in you Google search results. Meta-descriptions are the first impressions of a blog or website. They sound like they only matter for the purpose of SEO but they are very important no matter your goals. They should be catchy and informative, and give the reader a good idea of what they will find, were they to click. They will make or break a user’s decision to click on your blog.
Customized Slug. A website’s slug is the portion of the URL that follows the forward slash. For example, glance up at the search bar and take a look at the URL of this blog post. The slug follows the “.com/” and it contains the most important keywords for this topic. Your keywords are not only necessary within the content but also within the URL.
Tags. Tags are typically one word in length, denoted by the pound sign – # – also referred to as the hashtag. They are incredibly useful for organizational purposes. If you want to keep blog posts easily searchable, tags are your best friend.
Tags can also benefit users on your website. If you tag blog posts appropriately, users can search your website for content that relates to their search term. The relevant blog posts will appear in response to their search and they will have instant access to the content they wanted.
This feature also elevates usability. It creates an accessible site without causing frustration on part of the user. They are a categorization measure which keeps concepts distinct while maintaining a cohesive blog overall.
Keywords. Utilize tools like Ahrefs for your keyword research endeavors. Keywords are essential when it comes to SEO and ranking high on SERPs (search engine results pages).
If you are blogging for yourself without an active intention to gain online recognition, then your blog posts can truly be as brief or lengthy as you want. The minimum word count is merely a suggestion for people looking to advance their engagement and viewers.
These guidelines are by no means a requirement for any blogger, especially those blogging solely for leisure. However, the tips mentioned have been proven to heavily impact the success or downfall of a blog.
How to Monetize Your Blog
Many people wonder how to make money with a blog. Monetizing your blog is the most promising and passive way of generating additional income. Keep in mind that revenue from a blog is not instantaneous. Making money this way requires patience and considerable upkeep.
Most bloggers can expect to profit from their blog months after monetizing the website in some way. This is a rough estimate. Your estimated lag depends on the stage of the blogging process you were in when you started monetizing your blog.
If your expectation is immediate revenue, you will be disappointed in the reality of the situation. Try to not set yourself up for a major letdown. Through experience you will discover that revenue from a blog is slow, but if you work hard and create effective content that is discoverable, you may be able to make it work.
Paid advertisements, like Google AdSense, are the most common component of monetization. Other methods include SEO tools like search engine monetization, selling products such as e-books or online courses, engaging in affiliate marketing, becoming an influencer, and promoting brands via paid blog posts.
Monetizing a blog is an excellent measure to take once your analytics are well-established. You can attempt to place ads on your website at any point but they may end up costing you rather than enabling you to profit if you do not have enough viewers.
When your stats display consistent traffic flow, it is assumed that you have a reliable follower count and consistent number of views per day, give or take a few. If your blog does not have a follower feature, your user values and/or sessions rates will suffice when trying to figure out if you have the visibility to profit from monetization.
You do not necessarily need to have thousands of followers in order to monetize a blog. Sometimes, the act of monetizing drives users to the website, thereby increasing views. For instance, if you have an e-book or online classes, organic search traffic for those things are more likely to be directed to your website.
From there, interested users will hopefully transform from potential to loyal customers. Either way, your web page views increase. Even if their session does not end in a sale, the time they spent on your blog still benefits you.
The definition of a blog is “a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.” The term blog came about when the hobby caught on and people started referring to the compilation of online content as web logs. Eventually, web log was determined to be a mouthful, after which the two words were squished together, and web log became blog. While the terminology for blogging was condensed, blogs are anything but short. As blogging becomes more prominent and common, the length of the average blog is increasing. Like everything else, blogging has evolved over time. Blogging has come a long way. An act that began as a hobby has skyrocketed into a mode of employment. In today’s day and age, some people are full-time bloggers and they generate enough revenue to rely on blogging as their sole source of income.
There are many articles about blogging and the skills that help advance your blog beyond mediocrity. If you are serious about blogging and have the determination to grow a blog, advice on how long a blog post should be is meant for you. This article relates to the recommended length of blog posts with respect to SEO. Optimizing a blog can be more work than writing content, which is a great measure all by itself. The content is very important, and it falls under the umbrella of SEO tactics, but it is not the only thing that matters. Blogging is a serious adventure and it can open doors to incredible opportunities if you travel down that path. Here is everything you need to know about starting a blog of your very own.
How to Create a Blog 101
Starting a blog is easy. Maintaining a blog is the part that takes a concerted amount of time and energy, but all the effort pays off in the long run. There are many steps to starting a blog, the first of which involves choosing a platform for your website and setting up your domain. Later in this blog post, we will dive head first into a plethora of hosting sites for bloggers. The details about each platform will teach you everything there is to know about starting a free blog. Once you have selected a platform to work with, we suggest that you purchase a domain. Some blogging platforms offer domains as part of their membership packages, but if not, there are other websites that offer domain names for purchase.From there, you should choose the theme that appeals to you most, and then customize the pages. The more original your blog’s appearance is, the more unique it will be, and that will assist you in standing out from the millions of bloggers out there. That said, there is no need to stick to a theme that you have come to dislike just because you are worried about having to redo everything. Understandable.
Adding content to pages can be quite the process, depending on how many pages you create. No need to hesitate, though. Feel free to change your theme at any point. The layout of your pages will adjust to match the theme you switched to but the content will remain intact. The next thing to consider is content. If your blog is business-related, the content should primarily reflect your brand and advertise the products or services available through your company. Brand names, logos, areas that you serve, and contact information are essential details to include on your blog. The best place for these pieces of information are within the header and footer, if you have them. If your theme allows for an About Me page, we highly recommend adding one.It helps to find a niche and cater to it, to an extent. This is not to imply that you should write what people want to read rather than compose content about your own passions. Instead, just consider that switching the focus of your content all the time will make it more difficult to keep the attention of your audience.
In a sense, you need to define your purpose. You’ll need to decide if having a variety of topics is more important to you than maintaining an audience or vice versa. Either way is totally fine, but if you strive for the latter, you will have to follow guidelines.If an audience understand your website to be a nutrition blog, but you start writing about fashion one day and then personal development the next, people who were drawn to your nutritional blog posts won’t return to read about other niche topics. There is no stability or predictability when your subject matter is all over the place. Again, that is totally fine. Just know that you may not be able to captivate as many people as you would if you stayed consistent. Networking is also very essential for bloggers. Initialing conversation with other bloggers via social media is key to gaining a following. The more you reach out to people in your niche market, the more connections you’ll make. By growing your connections, you expand your online presence as more people become aware of your blog. Blogs are the easiest and most conducive way of reaching an audience because there are no restrictions. Most blogs are non-exclusive and only the most private of bloggers protect their blogs with passwords. A blog is essentially a journal that people have the luxury of accessing from anywhere, due to its location on the internet.
Best Free Blog Sites
There are more blog platforms than you can count, but not all of them are free. Below is a list of blogging platforms that do not charge for their most basic of services. Except for Tumblr, these hosting sites offer features beyond the free services. You can create a blog for free with any of these platforms. However, some additional components are available at a cost.
An Important Detail to Know About Blog Platforms As mentioned above, you can utilize these blog platforms as your hosting site. It is important to reiterate that not all of the services provided by these sites are free. Just pay close attention to which features are complimentary versus those that come with a cost.
These platforms are referred to as “freemium” websites. Their basic options are free but anything beyond that comes with a cost. Some of these advanced options are plugins, premium themes, personalized domain names, and full ownership of your website.
Which Blog Hosting Platform is the Best?
The best of anything is always subjective. No matter what we think, you will bring your own viewpoints to the table. Think about what you want from your blog and choose your platform based on how well it match your needs.Here, we’ll shine the best possible light on each platform, discussing any perks and drawbacks, ultimately leaving the decision of which is best for you up to your discretion. After all, it’s your blog, so you’ll have the most involvement with the platform. Your blog platform should be suitable for your vision. We’ll talk about the blog types that do best with each platform to help you make an informed decision.
A lot of blogs are hosted by WordPress. The hosting site claims the majority of blogs. Its versatility definitely plays a large role in its popularity. The layout is intuitive for the most part, with live chat support or email options if you need to reach out for tech support. WordPress is for everyone and that is why its name comes up any time online platforms are brought up in conversation. The official site boasts about its presence on the web, with about 28% of all websites utilizing WordPress as the platform.
From the professional businesspeople to the casual bloggers and anyone in between, WordPress is undeniably suitable for you and your goals. WordPress even hosts some of the most official websites out there, including but not limited to Time, TechCrunch, and CNN. That fact alone brings a wealth of credibility to the company. With Wordpress, your blog is sure to exceed expectations. Choosing a hosting platform for your blog that you can have total faith in definitely makes a difference.
WordPress has an extensive selection of themes to choose from and they are separated into categories based on the purpose of the blog. Wordpress offers a variety of plans with different prices to accommodate every budget.
Wordpress Plans and Pricing
Plan Name Cost Per Month Added Benefits Free $0
- WordPress.com subdomain name
- 3GB of storage
- Community support
- Free themes
- Basic customizable design features
- Jetpack essential features
- Domain of your own
- 6GB of storage
- Live chat support
- Free themes
- Basic customizable design features
- Jetpack essential features
- Domain of your own
- 13GB of storage
- Live chat support
- Unlimited premium themes
- Advanced customizable design features
- Remove WordPress ads
- Option to monetize your blog
- Technical support
- Jetpack essential features
- Domain of your own
- Unlimited storage
- Live chat support
- Unlimited premium themes
- Advanced customizable design features
- Remove WordPress ads
- Option to monetize your blog
- Technical support
- SEO plug-ins and tools
- Option to upload your own themes
- Google Analytics integration
- Remove WordPress branding
One way that Blogger outranks other blog hosting sites is its offer for a free domain, no strings attached. You do not have to upgrade to a membership with a monthly fee, charged yearly, as you do with many other hosting sites. The domain just comes along with a Blogger account, right off the bat.
There are no costs associated with a Blogger account, either. The platform is similar to Tumblr in that all features are free. Google purchased Blogger back in 2003, and along with new ownership came the ability to link a Google+ account to your Blogger site. This is ideal for Google fans who like having everything in one place.
Most supporters of Blogger appreciate its simplicity. If your main focus is content creation, Blogger is straight to the point and thorough. It is important to note that Blogger does not offer much in terms of customization. There are very minimal options when it comes to themes and visual customizations for your blog. If you care about having control over the aesthetics of your blog, then we suggest looking at other hosting platforms, but if you really just want a free place to post your content, then Blogger is worth considering.
Tumblr is an online platform that appeals to a growing number of photography bloggers. The audience is also composed of a more youthful population, in comparison to other hosting sites. The platform is very straightforward and allows for a serious amount of freedom. You can select from free Tumblr themes or completely delete any code and insert your own theme. This option was so appreciated that Tumblr users started to design themes and provide the code to their followers as a way to gain more followers.The hosting site has changed a little bit after being purchased by Yahoo back in 2013. The alterations are not noticeable if you were not a Tumblr user prior to the change in ownership. Slight changes were made regarding the format of the Tumblr dashboard, which refers to the main page, as well as the algorithm that determines which posts appear first on your dashboard.Like many forms of social media, you follow other Tumblr users and the blogs that you follow curate your dashboard. Their posts will appear on your main feed and you can diverge from there by clicking on their icons. Doing so will take you away from the main page, which displays a compilation of all the blogs you follow, and redirect you to their individual Tumblr blog.
The thing about Tumblr is that it is not focused solely around producing your own content or sharing your material. It is actually referred to as microblogging, meaning that the content is circulated and there is a limit to the size capacity of each post. On Tumblr, you can either reblog or create posts in the form of text, quotes, photos, links, chat conversations, audio, and videos. The types of content are all-inclusive. However, Tumblr might feel a bit limiting because you can only be followed by fellow Tumblr users.Text posts, captioned photographs, and other content on Tumblr circulate very rapidly as long as enough attention is shown to the posts. The term reblog is the equivalent to sharing on Facebook or retweeting on Twitter. It basically means that your content was copied to another blog but the credit remains yours. The repetition of reblogs and likes on Tumblr is what causes content to go viral. The key to mastering Tumblr and producing a popular blog on this platform is to gain followers through interaction with other Tumblr users.
By engaging with them, you’ll open up lines of communication and establish a friendship.Tumblr is absolutely free with the option to monetize your blog if you so wish. You can purchase a domain to eradicate the tumblr from your URL but these domains are not offered by Tumblr. You would need to purchase an original domain from another source and then manually link it to your Tumblr, but this is not hard to do. Tumblr has instructions for doing so in their community forum.Weebly has been around for about as long as most blogging platforms. It originated in 2006, so around the time that Tumblr and Wix emerged as well. Weebly is a less used platform than its fellow blogging sites. There is no real reason for this in terms of features, tools, or usability. Weebly not only works for blogging purposes but users can also open an e-commerce store and take payments through their website. Like other blogging platforms, Weebly is free to begin, but there are advanced features available for paying customers. The upgrades that come with Weebly are associated with monthly plans, which you pay for upfront at the start of your membership.
Weebly Premium Plans
Plan Name Cost Per Month Added Benefits Free $0
- None
- Free domain
- $100 in AdSense credit
- Free domain
- $100 in AdSense credit
- Free domain
- $100 in AdSense credit
- VIP for first priority support
- eCommerce for small businesses
- Unlimited for freelancers and/or entrepreneurs
- Combo for personal usage
- Connect Domain for the most basic of needs
Wix Premium Plans
Plan Name Cost Per Month Added Benefits Connect Domain $5
- 1GB bandwidth
- 500 MB of storage
- Connect a domain of your own
- 2GB bandwidth
- 3GB of storage
- Free domain
- No more Wix ads
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 10GB of storage
- Free domain
- No more Wix ads
- $300 in ad vouchers
- Site Booster app
- Form Builder app
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 20GB of storage
- Free domain
- No more Wix ads
- $300 in ad vouchers
- Site Booster app
- Form Builder app
- Online store capability
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 20GB of storage
- Free domain
- No more Wix ads
- $300 in ad vouchers
- Site Booster app
- Form Builder app
- Online store capability
- VIP support
- Priority response for troubleshooting
- Site edits and review by professionals
Medium is one of the lesser known platforms for online content. It is also very specific in that it caters to writers and readers. Writers, however, can apply to publish their pieces on Medium in a blog format. The writers have less control over the formatting or style because their work is uploaded to the website by the people behind Medium.
Medium also comes along with free features, with the option of upgrading your subscription to a paid membership. There is a fee of $5 per month associated with the membership. The low cost is very reasonable because it expands your access to an unlimited number of stories on Medium.
You can think of it less as a subscription fee and more of an appreciation measure for the writers on Medium. This is because you can control where your money goes! That is correct: if you like a particular author, you can designate your money to go to them.
There are even more blog platforms to choose from, beyond those that are listed in this article.
The trick to choosing the blog platform that will suit you best is to first decide what the purpose of your blog will be and what particular features you would like to have. From there, it becomes much simpler to cut your choices in half.
Coming up with Blog Post Ideas
Running a blog is an opportunity to share your knowledge on a platform that you own. The content you post on your blog is entirely up to you. However, if your aim is to gain visibility online or grow an audience, knowledge about SEO is a handy trick to keep up your sleeve all the time.
If you are more concerned about gaining traction and attention online, it is best to align your blog with a certain niche market. As we mentioned previously, we advise that your content not vary extensively. Find a topic that you could never bore of and center your blog around that subject matter. As long as you are passionate about your theme, you’ll be able to brainstorm blog post ideas relatively easily.
There are many websites that can help you with the brainstorming aspect of blogging. Keyword research is an often-overlooked tool. Online assistance likeAhrefs are available at your disposal if you are looking to appeal to the majority of web users. Ahrefs can show you keywords that you are ranking for, as well as suggest alternative keyword ideas.
If you care less about ranking tools and more about coming up with ideas consistently, there are other online features to turn to in your time of creative deficit. Many online chat rooms are great spaces for discussion among bloggers, content creators, editors, and readers.
You can always post an inquiry in search of answers to guide you towards a path of never-ending ideas. This question has definitely been asked before so the chances of finding already published responses are very high.
Another suggestion for breaking through writer’s block or sparking a light of creativity in your thought process is looking for inspiration. You can find it just about anywhere. If you run an artistic blog and cannot brainstorm any poem ideas, start writing mindlessly for three minutes. Refrain from picking up your pen. Keep writing even if all you come up with is reiteration of the same sentence. Eventually, a lightbulb will illuminate and your idea will come to you.
If you are an informational blog, think about the process of your work. Do you buy items at thrift stores and then turn them around for profit online? Compose a blog post that acts as a manual for readers who have an interest in flipping but do not know how to begin the process.
Maybe you create content for equestrians. Are there any tips you can provide for putting a harness on a pony? Do you have any secrets of the trade that can help new riders feel at ease while horseback? These may seem like common knowledge topics to you but the truth is that someone out there needs guidance. Who better to provide insight than someone who runs a blog all about their interest? No idea is insignificant. Whatever you can apply your intellect to is worth adding to your blog.
How to Write a Blog Post: Layout and Copywriting
Writing blog posts is not as simple as merely typing words, stringing together sentences, and posting the text to your blog. Blog posts, like all styles of written work, are an art form.
Layout is important. If your posts are not aesthetically pleasing, viewers are less likely to read them in entirety.
Avoid walls of text. Paragraphs should be broken up by headers, quotes, and images. Scroll through your article in a preview before pushing it live. If there is ever a point where the only thing on your screen is text, break it up. This will make it appear more consumable and less daunting to the human eye.
Length
Copywriting is an equally important part of blogging. Everything else could be in line with best practices for blogging, but if your content is questionable, inconsistent, or poorly written, nothing else matters. You cannot compensate for poor content quality with an eye-catching layout or vivid photographs. Keep your content concise, relevant, and authoritative.
SEO Blog posts can be broken down into segments. Each post should contain a main header, liberal sub-headers, a body, a meta-description, a customized slug, tags, and keywords.
There is no precise magical number that tells you how long your blog post should be because each topic is unique in its own right. The suggested length depends on your goals.
However, it has been shown that the average blog post is around 2,300 words. For an idea of what you should aim for, take a look at the competition. Your blog post on the same topic should average out to about 500-1,000 more words than the competing blog post.
Main Header and Sub-Headers. The header of a blog post is meant to intrigue an audience while simultaneously summarizing the point of the blog. Sub-headers are much the same. Though they are supposed to be more specific to a certain paragraph or section of the content, they also introduce the ideas to follow. Incorporating keywords into the H1, H2s, and H3s is key.
Body. By now, you have already convinced the reader that your blog post is worth viewing by way of the header. The body of an article refers to all the content on the page.
Meta-Description. The meta-description is that brief introductory segment that you see right below the title of web pages in you Google search results. Meta-descriptions are the first impressions of a blog or website. They sound like they only matter for the purpose of SEO but they are very important no matter your goals. They should be catchy and informative, and give the reader a good idea of what they will find, were they to click. They will make or break a user’s decision to click on your blog.
Customized Slug. A website’s slug is the portion of the URL that follows the forward slash. For example, glance up at the search bar and take a look at the URL of this blog post. The slug follows the “.com/” and it contains the most important keywords for this topic. Your keywords are not only necessary within the content but also within the URL.
Tags. Tags are typically one word in length, denoted by the pound sign – # – also referred to as the hashtag. They are incredibly useful for organizational purposes. If you want to keep blog posts easily searchable, tags are your best friend.
Tags can also benefit users on your website. If you tag blog posts appropriately, users can search your website for content that relates to their search term. The relevant blog posts will appear in response to their search and they will have instant access to the content they wanted.
This feature also elevates usability. It creates an accessible site without causing frustration on part of the user. They are a categorization measure which keeps concepts distinct while maintaining a cohesive blog overall.
Keywords. Utilize tools like Ahrefs for your keyword research endeavors. Keywords are essential when it comes to SEO and ranking high on SERPs (search engine results pages).
If you are blogging for yourself without an active intention to gain online recognition, then your blog posts can truly be as brief or lengthy as you want. The minimum word count is merely a suggestion for people looking to advance their engagement and viewers.
These guidelines are by no means a requirement for any blogger, especially those blogging solely for leisure. However, the tips mentioned have been proven to heavily impact the success or downfall of a blog.
How to Monetize Your Blog
Many people wonder how to make money with a blog. Monetizing your blog is the most promising and passive way of generating additional income. Keep in mind that revenue from a blog is not instantaneous. Making money this way requires patience and considerable upkeep.
Most bloggers can expect to profit from their blog months after monetizing the website in some way. This is a rough estimate. Your estimated lag depends on the stage of the blogging process you were in when you started monetizing your blog.
If your expectation is immediate revenue, you will be disappointed in the reality of the situation. Try to not set yourself up for a major letdown. Through experience you will discover that revenue from a blog is slow, but if you work hard and create effective content that is discoverable, you may be able to make it work.
Paid advertisements, like Google AdSense, are the most common component of monetization. Other methods include SEO tools like search engine monetization, selling products such as e-books or online courses, engaging in affiliate marketing, becoming an influencer, and promoting brands via paid blog posts.
Monetizing a blog is an excellent measure to take once your analytics are well-established. You can attempt to place ads on your website at any point but they may end up costing you rather than enabling you to profit if you do not have enough viewers.
When your stats display consistent traffic flow, it is assumed that you have a reliable follower count and consistent number of views per day, give or take a few. If your blog does not have a follower feature, your user values and/or sessions rates will suffice when trying to figure out if you have the visibility to profit from monetization.
You do not necessarily need to have thousands of followers in order to monetize a blog. Sometimes, the act of monetizing drives users to the website, thereby increasing views. For instance, if you have an e-book or online classes, organic search traffic for those things are more likely to be directed to your website.
From there, interested users will hopefully transform from potential to loyal customers. Either way, your web page views increase. Even if their session does not end in a sale, the time they spent on your blog still benefits you.
