New Bloggers aren’t sure if they can blog. So it is important to have a step by step guide that can make new bloggers understand blogging and let them decide if blogging is the right choice for them or not. So I will share the basic of blogging and detailed step by step guide to getting started blogging with WordPress.
The Mindset of New Bloggers
Getting started to blogging by getting a domain and hosting does not work especially with new Indian webmasters when they are not sure if they can blog or not. So it is important to get your feet wet with blogging. When you are trying to blog you are actually not trying to be a blogger but you want to see if blogging can work for you or not and test the blogging model yourself.
If you are into the same mindset read below or else you can directly jump to the next level.
Getting Started with WordPress.com
Self-hosted WordPress blog is the way forward for money making blogs but we need a domain name and hosting for self hosted blog. If you are not comfortable getting yourself a domain and hosting, you can get started with WordPress.com blog that will be on WordPress.com subdomain likehttp://shabbirbhimani.wordpress.com/
WordPress.com blogs are difficult to monetize (can see why here) but the idea is to get the feeling of WordPress and blogging before you move to self hosted WordPress blog. Your risk is only the time you invested learning WordPress and nothing financially which I think should be very much an option for anybody who is trying to be a blogger or webmaster.
Your effort of WordPress.com blog will not be wasted at all and it will help you build links to your self hosted WordPress blog that you get in the future.
This article has lot of steps and so I will recommend you bookmark this page for coming back to the article. Once bookmarked I will suggest go and get your WordPress.com blog NOW.
Finding the Right Niche for your Blog
Let us now find the right niche for your blog. Finding Niche is very tough task but finding niche of your first blog is simple and let me help you get that done.
Take paper and pen and write down all your hobbies. At least make a list of 3-5 hobbies and don’t worry it can be anything like cricket, bikes, gyms, reading books or even playing games.
Sort the hobbies in decreasing order of your liking.
The niche of your blog is the one right at the top of your list. Find 10 topics that you would search in Google for finding information about the niche. Those ten topics will become your first ten posts in WordPress later.
Why don’t you promote your blog in my comments before proceeding further? Share your blog and niche with me in comments below.
Blog Themes
You have your WordPress blog and have selected the right niche for your blog and its time to find Good theme for your Blog that suits your niche.
If you have started with WordPress.com blog you have the option to choose the themes in your WordPress admin interface. Select the theme that is best suitable to your niche. You can choose from thousands of free WordPress themes.
Once you have your blog, the right niche and the needed design, its time for the first few articles to go live on your blog.
The First Few Posts
Time to go blogging. While choosing the niche for the blog I suggested you to have ten topics and so the first step is to get those articles online.
Once you have your first set of topics as posts in your blog you can have hard time finding new topics (and every blogger can have that issue) and so I will share with you one very important tip about finding topics for blogging. Make blogging part of your day and soon you will notice things from a blogging perspective. You will find lot of things that would tell yourself, “Hey, I can write about this.”
You are passionate about the topic and it is your hobby as well and so it should not be very difficult for you to read and learn more about it.
You can also visit related forums and read queries from members to find topics for your blogs. Apart from that you can also read other authority blogs to learn more about the topic as well as read comments on the authority blog and see what questions people have and answer them on your blog.
Things to Avoid As New Blogger
Don’t focus on traffic stats – Don’t focus on traffic stats and even if you do, don’t feel depressed if no one visits your site for the first few months. It will take some time for your blog to get noticed and readership and so you should focus on getting good quality articles before trying to get people to read them. If people land on blog with only handful of posts, they may not consider you seriously.
Avoid Social Media Marketing – Social network sites are good but they do eat up lot of your valuable time that you can dedicate to writing posts.
Avoid too many options in the sidebar – New bloggers tend to add lot of distractions like twitter and Facebook streams. These things never work and make your blog slower. Apart from that it gives lot of options to your users to click away from your blog.
Why Blog?
The most important question is why you should blog? It is not always the money that drives people to blogging and there is much more than just money which is
Create great relationships with people you may never meet.Learn lot of technical stuff – I was not taught PHP or WordPress in my Bachelor’s degree but now I can say I know them because of blogging.Learn lot of non-technical stuff – I am not a marketing guy and yet I do lot of experiment with online marketing for my websites. The credit of learning of internet marketing goes to blogging.
What to Expect from your New Blog?
Many people expect immediate results from blogging and are deeply disappointed when things don’t go their way. I prefer building a blog before expecting anything from it.
Do you think you can blog? Do you understand WordPress better now? What all queries you have that you want me to answer? Share in comments
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