Have you been considering starting your blog, but you were a bit afraid thinking, you aren’t tech-savvy, you don’t have outstanding writing skills, or perhaps have no idea what to write about or how to start.

In our changing world, not only do more and more people have to work from home, but we also have to be quite independent with a go-getter mentality if we want to succeed in this new era.

So, if you have a feeling you could be blogging, this article could help.

Your Passion Matters More than Your Expertise

Chances are, you haven’t started writing your blog articles yet because you feel you don’t quite have enough expertise in a certain area you want to write about.

Should you be worried about this?

Not at all!

Your readers are more curious about your personal experience than having a very advanced level of degree and related career experience in the topic of your choice.

Be rest assured, you don’t need a Master’s or Ph.D. degree to write about something you feel passionate about!

If you are passionate about a certain area, be it technology, cooking, fashion, or wellbeing, you must have gained enough information to write something interesting, based on your private experience!

This matters a lot more to your readers than a scientific approach.

Blog readers are not those types of readers who seek expertise. So, if you think about the topics and areas of your interest where you also have useful experience to share, this shouldn’t be a problem!

Of course, you should be up-to-date with your information, so educating yourself continually in your niche can only add to the quality of your content, and make your blog more informative.

Similar to our everyday lives, if you want to stay on the top of your game, or just know what’s going on in the world, you strive to inform yourself regularly on what’s happening in the world. And like with everything, practice makes perfect.

The more you write, the better you become.

Which can raise the next question.

Should You Have Outstanding Writing Skills?

More importantly, you should enjoy writing, especially for long hours. If this is not your thing, you should not start.

But if you like writing about various things, and you have a bit of experience, it could be a great basis to start your personal blog.

We all have to start somewhere, and none of us was born already writing, right?

If you have faith you can do it, it should not be rocket science. It takes good grammar and being able to share a story that could be interesting for others. 

If you have appropriate experience doing plenty of correspondence, you should not be worried. It is false to think that most bloggers have had great previous writing experience.

All you need to do is muster up your courage, think about your greatest strengths and experiences, and have faith in yourself!

Then ready, steady, and go!!

You should also take it easy, since you can use an informal and conversational tone, like the one you would use writing to a friend.

Read more: How To Write a Blog Post that Generates Traffic and Sales

Share Your Knowledge With the World

Blogging is a great way to do so!! If you feel you have enough useful information to share with others, who could also benefit from the things you learned and experienced, it is a win-win scenario.

Maybe this is your greatest chance to be heard. Some bloggers write frequently about what’s happening to them, sharing their everyday life stories.

Writing blogs can also earn you a decent income if you become great at it. It is worth trying!

Some bloggers can even capitalize on their blogs in the long run. This is a great form of income, what’s more, could be an attractive source of a passive income!

The top bloggers who also know the technical bits of affiliate marketing and other ways to make their blogs more profitable have invested quite a bit of time, effort, as well as self-learning to become one of the bests!

The choice is yours to spend time writing blogs only a few hours too many each week.

It doesn’t only improve your writing skills and clarifies your ways of thinking, but can also polish your strategic skills.

It could also lead you to become very good at your chosen field! So much so, that some bloggers became true experts in their fields, receiving a book or film offer!!

If you choose to make it interactive, you could gain a larger following. When you write something and people comment on it, you can connect with them and share what you know more easily.

What Should You Name Your Blog

After selecting your preferred field of topics, you could give your blog a suitable name.

Don’t have any idea of what a good name should be?

Try to brainstorm your ideas and jot them down on paper.

A few hints: Write about your everyday life. The things that matter to you and make your life unique. Everyone has valuable thoughts, what are you passionate about?

If you think of ways to combine your daily life with areas of your experience, you could create interesting articles. 

For instance, if you enjoy traveling and have gained many interesting stories on your trips, together with invaluable information, if you share them with others, they could greatly benefit from those.

Always think about what valuable snippet of knowledge could you add from your perspective which provides a bit of a different angle from your side. Perhaps this is your unique gift of seeing things differently.

People love new perspectives, feel free to share yours!!

What are you passionate about?

Have you been considering writing about your hobbies??

No matter what your interest is, remember, you are writing for a wide range of audiences. Some people will be surely interested in what you have to say.

How about odd topics?

Well, as long as you engagingly write them, there’s a high probability you will have some following. The more passionate you are about your topics, the more it will shine through your content!

When you know the main field of your topics, and have an idea of your blog name, it will also be your website domain name.

Make sure that it matches your content well! You should aim to signal your content through your domain name so that your audience can find you effectively.

If you have travel content, for example, your domain name doesn’t have to include travel, you can just use the words trip, journey, etc. When you write about something more personal, like the thoughts you want to share with others, you could just use your name as your domain. 

This post contains affiliate links (I don’t recommend anything that I don’t believe in), meaning at no extra cost to you, I might receive a small commission for purchases made through these links.

Initial Steps to Get Your Blog Going 

To start running your blog after you have your domain name, you will need blog hosting and blogging software. These usually come in a package.

The company which stores your blog data and delivers them to your users when they search for your content is the blog host provider. Additionally, you will need blogging software like WordPress to be able to build your blog. It is simple to use, you can tailor it according to your needs and it’s also used the most frequently.

You could use Hostinger.com as your software for instance. Log in with your chosen domain name and password. You can reset your password in case of need. After you log in you will see the Hostinger Portal from where you can click the blue WordPress button to be taken to your WordPress blog. You can modify your blog content here. WordPress is quite user-friendly and enables you to make easy changes in your design or layout with a few clicks. 

WordPress also offers you thousands of themes to choose from, so if you don’t like what you originally choose and installed, you can easily replace them with a new one. To do so, you need to click on the Appearance button, then on Add New Theme.

If you wish to change your design on any occasion, you only need to activate a fresh WordPress theme. If you click on the Popular tab and find something you like, you can click Install, and Active to make it appear on your blog.  

Your First Post And Your Content

When your blog is working, you are ready to create your first blog post! To activate your first content you need to click on Posts from the menu on the left. You can delete the default post which is already there but you will not need it, by clicking Trash. Then, press Add New to writing your new post. Follow the instructions and type the title of your post on the top, then you can start writing your post beneath it. 

If you click on Add Image then press the Upload button, you can add images to your post. You can also change the size of your picture on the following page. You can upload your picture by clicking on Insert into post. To finalize your post, press the Publish button in the top right corner.

You should have static and dynamic types of content on your blog. Static content doesn’t change much or not frequently, your readers should be able to access these pages via your blog menu.

You should design these static content pages before you begin your blog. Try to include the following static pages:

About me, your bio with the key points of how you got to your current field, as well as your objective.

Contact me, to enable your visitors to reach you in case of need.

You should share your private data to the extent you feel you need, including your email address, phone number, and maybe your physical address. Even better, if you link them to your social media sites. 

You should also include a Disclaimer Page, if you want to earn money through your blog, you should describe the ways you want to generate profit. According to FTC requirements, this is highly important. Especially if you are discussing and endorsing a product or service.

Privacy Policy, if you collect data from your users, you also need to include a privacy policy page through which you can share with your visitors how you do this. You should also add Terms of Service if you sell products or services online, to minimize your liability.

The dynamic content is your actual blog content. This is the essential part of your blog, where you offer useful information to your visitors, such as your unique experience, stories, tips, research, facts, and any knowledge you may have gained.

This is your pivotal element to maintain the interest of your readers, and make them return. You should upload content often and frequently, if you skip long weeks or months, you cannot build a following. Ideally, you should post weekly to drive adequate traffic through your content. 

What Makes Your Blog Content Engaging

You might aren’t in the mood to write amazing content all the time. It is normal. However, you should strive to come up with quality content that could be interesting for others, keep your story engaging, and informative.

If you can write on versatile subjects in various tones, it could spice up your brand. Having interesting titles can spark up curiosity and drive followers to your page. Your first paragraph should be a clear outline of your topic and should be appealing enough to read on. 

Your visitors could amazingly benefit from a long and informative article you write. If you do so, you should make it transparent, with clear structuring. Chances are, your readers would skim through your content, if they have to read long paragraphs, so you should do your best to break them down! You can ensure better visibility by not only using spaces between paragraphs, but quotes, images, lists, headings, subheadings, and you could sparingly use bolding. 

A good strategy could be to ask an engaging question at the end of your posts that your visitors could answer. This could initiate an interactive conversation between you and your readers. If you do so, your page’s engagement could grow much faster. Strive to be unique and genuine, plagiarism is never a good idea! Use your experience to create your content, but feel free to study the techniques and topics of other bloggers in your field! 

If you can, use images that you have made, to be as original as possible! Alternatively, you can always find free stock photos on the internet, if you don’t have a chance to take or use your photos.

You could get creative and use graphic work, or various software for example Canva to add images to your content. Most importantly, it should come from your passion. Remember to always double-check your content’s grammar and writing style, Grammarly could be a great help!

How to Promote Your Blog

When you create a blog, website, or social media site it is always just the beginning.

How well it will work for you, is a question of further efforts you are willing to put in. To achieve your desired following, you need to find promoting ways that best work for you.

It could be different for everyone. Be willing to try and test a few of the following tips to get the most out of your blog and brand!

You should start by informing the people closest to you: your family members, friends, the members of your social circles, and colleagues. Talk to them about your blog, send them invitations, and ask them to follow it, and also promote it to others. Express your gratitude to them! You could also link your content to social media platforms, and promote your blog on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or Pinterest. Try to do so sparingly but effectively!

If you are also active on the blogs of different bloggers and engage with your community by quality comments, you can promote your blog via a link, if they like you. This can benefit your following greatly and can get you prompt recognition in your blogging environment. You must keep your visitors’ interest high by engaging with them when they leave a comment. 

It is like the two sides of the same coin, when you engage with your readers, they will feel encouraged to return to your site! If you can also work together with other bloggers in your field by promoting each other’s brands, products, and services, using social media platforms, and referring to each other in the comments sections, you can multiply your and others’ following!

If you want to ensure returning visitors, you can also use email marketing. All you need to do is get your visitors’ email addresses and inform them when you post new content to your blog. Many service providers notify their followers by sending them emails about their new content. Creating such alerts could be a prerequisite to building up a successful following!

Optimize Your Blog by Using SEO

You should also optimize your blog adequately for search engines. Without an effective SEO, (search engine optimization), your visitors won’t be able to find your blog. At least you should use basic processes. You should use header tags for section headings and subheadings. Categorize your content distinctly by using specified and suitable categories. Use Appropriate Permalinks, with the right ending, which shouldn’t be an article number.

How to Capitalize on Your Blog 

If you have your products and services to sell, your blog can be a great tool to earn you an income. Ideally, with your growing number of visitors, your blog should become an automated source of income, and visitors could also buy from you when you are taking a break, you are traveling, are on holiday, or spending time with your family members. Among the most used online products are digital materials like e-books, tutorial videos, etc. 

Selling your products can not only be made an automated process, but you can also save a lot on the shipping cost and make it work fast! If you have a lot of knowledge in a certain field, and you create your digital materials, you might as well surprise yourself how well they could work!

Writing an ebook should not be too hard if you have some kind of expertise in a field. If you offer it at a friendly price, and many of your visitors buy them, you could earn a great passive income!

You could also create memberships on your blog. You could include in your memberships unlimited downloads, free consultation, a private forum with a great community, and specific content available to certain members. Your blog can earn you an income in many ways depending on your aims and targets.

Not every blogger who sells products and services is willing to be a part of an affiliate program. Doing so they could lose traffic to different sites. 

If it sounds like your thing, you could also consider selling affiliate products through adverts for commission. Your visitors have to click on a link on your page to end up on the advertiser’s site. If they buy something from that site you can earn a commission. Using affiliate links on products and services reviews can help you make money if you disclose that you are an affiliate for the given product or service. 

If you have created a successful blog with a great following, chances are, advertisers will seek you out to help them advertise their products and services through your platform.

By using Google Adsense, both you and your advertisers can benefit from your popularity. It works in a way that Google detects and finds possible advertisers for you, and you enable adverts to run through your page by adding a Google Adsense code on your blog. It works automatically, and this code can earn you some cash.

Wishing you the best of luck!

This is a guest post written by Russell Ridgeway

Russell Ridgeway is an American writer based in Budapest, Hungary. He works for Lensa and creates freelance content in the business, tech, and fashion industries. He also writes creative fiction. You can reach him by email (russell@lensawork.com), or on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

If you want to submit guest posts to Inuidea, check out the guest post guidelines for Inuidea.

Featured image illustration by Storyset