Blogs are like that black shirt in your closet that never goes out of style. For many people, it remains a very attractive means of expression with which they seek to achieve personal or professional success. Creating a blog and getting the public to read it is a tremendously attractive challenge.
Although there are many reasons to start a blog, it could summarize almost all the motivations in need to communicate and share your way of seeing things.
What is a blog?
Let us start by the beginning. A blog is a type of website dedicated to the periodic publication of content in text format. These contents are usually ordered in reverse chronological order (greater visibility for the most recent ones), and, usually, they have a personal nuance of experience or opinion that their author prints.
Blog types
Personal blog
It was the origin of Everything. It is a blog closely linked to the author’s personal brand, and, normally, it has a strong component of his opinion or particular vision.
Corporate blog
You are reading a corporate blog right now. You can collect content very similar to that of personal blogs, but the approach is no longer personal to assume the identity of the brand it represents.
Today, corporate blogging is a very important piece of the inbound marketing and content marketing strategy of many brands.
Egoblog
Very common until the arrival of Instagram, an ego blog is a blog focused on the world of fashion and in which the protagonist of the content is the author himself.
Although nowadays they are not so popular, at the time they were tremendously popular, and from them emerged some of the most recognized influencers, such as Alexandra Pereira (Lovely Pepa) or Dulceida.
Microblog
It is a short content publishing service, usually focused on text, and that enhances the publishing formula from mobile phones.
Although the most common example is Twitter, platforms such as the free blog network Tumblr have also promoted these types of websites.
Vlog
The vlog or video blog became very fashionable with the democratization of broadband, 3G, digital cameras, and, of course, YouTube.
It consists of a site where videos are regularly published where the author shares content equivalent to what you might find in text format: opinion, analysis, tutorials, etc.
Fotolog
Like the previous one, the photoblog is defined by the content format: in this case, the photographs.
In many cases, it reflects a challenge from the author, such as posting a daily photo for a full year. In other cases, it is a platform to publish your photo reports.
Two types of aspects that you must define: editorial and technical
Choose a topic for your blog
Within the first set of aspects, you must choose the topic you are going to write about.
Keep in mind that it has to be rich enough that you can come up with ideas to write about for years. But it should also be concrete enough so that you can become a specialist on the subject and that your opinion is relevant.
The most important thing is that it is something that you like, attract or care about. Don’t pick a topic just because it’s hot or because someone tells you that there are a lot of readers interested in it. If you choose a topic that does not interest you very much, it will be very difficult for you to write in a few months and you will leave.
Choose a title for your blog
It can be something as simple and obvious as your own name or that of your brand, but you can also wear something more original if you want to attract attention.
You could also think about SEO factors when writing the title, either your brand or your area of knowledge.
Set a tone for your blog
The tone or communication style of your blog is a decision that depends both on your personality and the level of trust you want to establish with your reader.
If you want to position yourself in the professional environment as an expert, you may need to use a more serious tone than that of a kitchen blogger, for example.
In any case, think that the tone of your blog should represent you, be direct, honest, and comfortable enough so that you can communicate fluently.
Choose a platform for your blog
Regarding the technical aspects, the possibilities that exist to publish a blog are of two types: external platform vs. own.
As for third-party platforms, you have two classics that have been with us for many years: WordPress.com and Blogger. However, there are others that are gaining a lot of weight in recent times, such as Medium.
Blogger
The dean of blogging, the Google platform, is not exactly the most up-to-date, but it offers you all the basics you may need for free and very few complications. In addition, there is a lot of documentation on the net on how to use it.
You will avoid investing time in system administration, updates, and configurations. In just a few minutes, you will be writing and publishing content. As if this were not enough, it is totally free.
Disadvantages? Evolution is very limited. As soon as you need some functionality that leaves the conventional blog, you will find yourself at a dead end.
Medium
Medium is a mix between a blogging platform and a social network. Created by the founders of Twitter, it is based on a super minimalist publishing tool. His goal is 100% focused on your writing and your readers reading you, without further distractions.
This means that you will be able to publish your blog in just a few minutes, but also that your site will hardly be visually distinguished from others hosted on the same platform.
WordPress
With WordPress, you will have absolute control over the aesthetics and characteristics of your blog. Not in vain it is a tool that was born to publish blogs. Although it has evolved a lot, and today it is a much more complete content manager, it still has a blogger soul.
The objective of this tool is to democratize the publication of content on the internet, and it has thousands of collaborators around the world who help in its development. Today, 40% of the websites are powered by this technology.
The network is full of guides, tutorials, and tips to exploit your site with WordPress. Even on this blog, you will find hundreds of related resources.
Tips on blogging
Keys to achieving success with your blog
You can spend years writing on your blog, and your activity goes unnoticed, without pain or glory, among the immensity of content that is published daily on the internet.
There is nothing wrong with this unless you have a practical goal to accomplish. In fact, the concept of success does not have to be exclusively related to a large monthly readership.
Constancy
Consistency and patience are the fundamental keys. Success rarely comes overnight. The vast majority of blogs have been publishing for many years and with very high publishing routines.
Some titans post every day, others once a week, and very few succeed with one post a month unless the content is absolutely brilliant. There are no shortcuts. Write, write and write.
Specialize
Try to focus on a specific topic. Sure there are many things you want to write about but, if you want to have a loyal audience (and that is essential), they have to know that Everything you write is going to interest them.
Think about your target audience
Determine the type of person you want to read to you and try to solve their needs or pain points with your content.
This is particularly important when you are using the blog as a way to attract visitors to your site to offer them something else, such as your professional services or products. How could you help the people who would buy them from you?
Take care of your writing technique
Your technique will improve as you practice. In just a few months, you will acquire your own style, but it is advisable to study a little to improve the way you write on your blog.
That will make you more efficient, you will write faster, and the impact will be greater. Lean on copywriting and SEO to write your content.
In this same vein, do Google searches on the topics you are going to cover to see which articles are better positioned and how you could improve them. This will help you create more compelling titles, deeper content, and more relevant keywords.
Don’t neglect the images
Although the visual content is not the most important thing on your blog, do not forget the graphic section. In particular, the featured image is displayed as a thumbnail when sharing an article on social networks. And you know how important to design an attractive logo.
Keep in mind that, when publishing a link on any social network, it is displayed in a title, sometimes a description, and is always accompanied by an image.
Within the article, the images will help you make the content breathe and not be excessively heavy. So please choose a good graphic design program to make your images more attractive.
Encourage subscription
Although a reader who has just met you loves what you have written, it is difficult for them to remember you. We receive too many inputs of information every day and only what deeply impacts us seeps into our memory.
Therefore, it is important that you rely on systems such as subscription methods to your blog to make it easy for that user to read you again.
Conclusion
Publishing a blog is very simple nowadays. Getting people to read it is a bit more complicated and requires some effort. Achieving success with your blog is a task only available to the most committed bloggers.
So I can only invite you to try, write, experiment, learn and enjoy the exciting world of blogging.
