1. Before
you consider starting a blog, know what you want to blog about. What’s your
hobby? What do you enjoy talking about? What is your job? What do you write
about? What have you researched for a book? Do you write about specific
locations? Answering these questions can help you to target topics you’ll be
able to mold a blog around.
2. Have enough material. Jot down a list of possible article ideas and have a supply of posts ready to go.
3. Decide if you want to post once a week, three times a week, or every day. There is no right answer to this. It’s up to you and what you feel comfortable doing. Once a week is a great start and keeps your blog current.
2. Have enough material. Jot down a list of possible article ideas and have a supply of posts ready to go.
3. Decide if you want to post once a week, three times a week, or every day. There is no right answer to this. It’s up to you and what you feel comfortable doing. Once a week is a great start and keeps your blog current.
TIP: Post
your blogs between 5:00am and 8:00am EST for the early risers as well as those
who stop by later in the morning and throughout the day. This is great for time
differences as well.
4. Choose
your start date so you can prepare your blog before it goes live (before you
start telling people about it.) This allows you time to pick the background,
the colors, the font size, and the banner. Tinker away until you like
everything.
5. Select
a name for your blog that fits your overall theme. I chose Write with Fey because I knew I’d blog about writing.
6. Fill
out your Blogger profile. Have a short bio, and I do mean short. This will go
in the sidebar of your blog (and you should have the profile added as a widget
in a sidebar), so you don’t want a long bio to take up space. My Blogger
profile is maybe 20-words long. After that, add your website link in the
correct spot, fill out your interests, and upload your author photo.
A. If you use Feedburner, https://feedburner.google.com/,
click on “edit your feed,” which is under the title of your blog at the top,
and change the original feed by adding ?max-results=10
at the end so it’ll look like this: http://yourblogurl/feeds/posts/default?max-results=10
Why is it important to do this? Because if you don’t do it
and you go over 512K for the file size,
your feed won’t update with your new posts (subscribers won’t get emails and
your posts won’t go on your followers’ blog feeds). This happened to me, so do
it now so you don’t have this headache later.
NOTE: You
can change the max results to anything you want, but your feed is not an
archive, it’s an update for your content.
7. At
the end of every post, ask a question, ask readers to subscribe to your blog,
ask them to go to your Facebook page or Twitter, ask them to do something! Some
readers don’t know what to add to a post, but if you give them a question to
answer they will most likely leave a comment.
8. Don’t
forget to add labels to your posts. On Blogger, there is a box titled “Labels”
to the right when you’re creating a post. Click on it, type in all the labels
that qualify for your post, and separate them with commas. If your post is
about writing, you can you these labels: writing, writing tips, how to write a
novel, etc.
9. When
you have a few posts on your blog, you can add “Categories” to your blog. Here
is how you can do it:
·
Go to “Layout” on your Blogger Dashboard and
click “Add a Gadget” on your blog’s layout format.
·
A small page will pop up, scroll down until you
see “Labels,” and click it.
·
A new small page will appear. Create a title,
which can simply be “Categories.”
·
If you want to use certain labels, click
“Selected Labels” and then click “Edit.” Check off which labels you want to
appear, click “Done” and then “Save.”
·
Now move your gadget anywhere you want it on
your blog layout. Click “Save arrangement” at the top of the page and view your
blog. There will be clickable links for your readers to visit and read all the
posts under that category (the labels from #9).
10. Add
pictures to your blog. Pictures help to break up the content and can make a
post more interesting. You can take your own pictures or you can try this:
·
Start by doing your search in Google Images.
·
Once the images appear, click “setting,” which
is to the right on a row beneath the search bar.
·
A drop-down box will appear with “Advanced Search” as an option. Click
on it.
·
At the bottom of the page you’ll see Usage
Rights. Click on the down arrow for the drop-down box and pick the
last option: Free to use, share, or modify, even commercially. Save this.
· Then go back to the images. You are now looking
at the images that you can use freely without having to worry about copyright
or attribution, but you still have to check the source as some images have
limits.
TIP:
Pixabay and Pexels are two great sources for free images, but exercise caution when using ANY images that aren't yours.
11. If
you struggle to find content for your blog, try Nikki Pilkington’s 30 Day Blogging
Challenge, which is sold as an eBook.
12. Add
other gadgets to your blog to attract more readers and gain more followers,
such as: Popular Posts, Blog Archive, Search Box, and Share Buttons. You can
find all of these under “Gadgets” on the “Layout” page.
13. Add
pages to your blog. If you scroll up to the top of my blog, you’ll see my
pages: How to Write a Novel, Writing About, and more. To create your own pages,
click “Pages” in the left sidebar on your Blogger Dashboard. Then click “new
page.” Do what you’d usually do for a post.
If you want to use a post that’s already published on your
blog, or link to a page off your blog, such as your newsletter opt-in page, go
to “Layout” on the left sidebar. Look for the “Pages” gadget on your blog’s
layout. Click “edit.” From here, click “add external link,” create a page
title, and input the link for the page you want on your blog.
Also from the “Pages” gadget you can rearrange the order of
the pages and make sure that the new page you added is included. To do this,
all you have to do is make sure the new page has a check in the box next to it.
TIP:
Every four to six months, try to change up your blog by rearranging your
gadgets or adding new pictures. This makes it fresh for frequent visitors.
14. When
you publish a post, share it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any other
social media site.
15. To
get more readers, you can:
·
Publish half of your article to OnTopList and
direct them to the rest of the post by leaving the link at the bottom and
enticing them to keep reading.
Example: For
five more tips, follow this link. https://www.ontoplist.com/
·
Add your blog to blog directories. For blog
directories go to: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/20-essential-blog-directories-to-submit-your-blog-to/
TIP #1: The
more blogs you comment on and follow, the more comments and followers you’ll
get.
TIP #2: When
you get comments, reply back to them on your blog. Doing this shows other
visitors that you’re active and that you appreciate comments. Some bloggers
would disagree, though, saying it’s a waste of time as readers don’t usually
follow comments. It’s really up to you. I do get replies to my replies.
TIP #3:
Return the favor to anyone who comments on your blog by going to their blog and
commenting back. This will help you to build relationships.
TIP #4: After
you get to know other bloggers, ask them if you can offer a guest post. Many
bloggers accept guest posts, and if you create good content for them, their
readers may visit your blog.
TIP #5: If
you host guests on your blog, schedule their posts beforehand, which you can do
when you’re composing the post. Take it from me...it sucks to be a guest and
not have your guest post go up when it should.
There really is no right way to blog, but if you follow
these tips, you will have a blog you can be proud of. Just remember that
getting followers and comments takes time.
