Adding a Blog to Your Website – Step by Step Guide

A blog is a very popular tool amongst online marketers. It’s easy to set up, and allows you to put in fresh content frequently and easily. Most importantly, it gives you the ability to connect with your audience and expand your network, all of which can only be beneficial to your business.

However, putting in a blog can be a daunting task. Not only do you have to consider what kind of content you should put in, but you also have to set the blog up correctly, and make sure that it’s integrated with your website, social media channels, and email marketing campaigns. In this article, we’ll discuss the step-by-step process of adding a blog to your website.

Make Sure The Right Platforms Are Available

Before you start building your blog, make sure that the right platforms are available. You don’t want to build a blog on a platform that doesn’t support a variety of features, such as commenting, and connecting with other users.

For instance, if you’re writing on personal finance, you may want to avoid using WordPress.com, as it doesn’t support many features, such as advanced customizations, and it doesn’t have an affiliate program. Instead, use a hosting platform that supports all of these features, such as Bluehost, or one of their many premium plans.

This will help ensure that your blog can grow and develop into something special, and it also helps ensure that you can keep up with the demand for content, as many hosting platforms have limited resources, and as more and more people use blogs and social media, the server demands will increase, and so will your costs. Keep all of this in mind as you make your decision, and don’t just go with the first platform that you come across.

Choose An Appropriate Name

A unique and appropriate blog name is very important. It’s not only going to help establish your blog, but it’s also going to help draw more readers to your content, and allow others to find you more easily. Choose a name that is professional yet interesting, and something that will make sense to your audience, whether it’s technical or otherwise.

For example, if you are in the travel industry and your blog is focused on touring around the world, your blog name could be something like “In Search of Eternity”, or “Around the World in 80 Days”, as all of these titles would make sense to your readers, and ensure that they find the content more easily.

However, if your blog is more of a personal style and hobby blog, you may want to consider using your initials, or the name of one of your favorite hobbies.

Set Up The Blog With A Fresh Bloggerate Installing

In addition to having the right platforms, you also want to set up your blog with a clean and stable WordPress environment. If you’re a beginner, it’s recommended that you follow the guide, How to Set Up a WordPress Blog, which will help you get started quickly and easily. That way, you can focus on writing content, instead of fiddling with complex configurations. Plus, if you mess up or make a mistake, you can easily fix it, rather than having to troubleshoot complex issues.

Once you’ve got your WordPress blog set up, you can start adding content to it.

Decide What You’ll Write About

This is one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make, and it’ll affect the entire tone and content of your blog. You have two options here, either you decide to cover a specific subject, or you decide to write on general subject matters, but with an emphasis on providing practical advice for your readers. Each option has its perks, so you have to decide what’s best for you, and your blog.

For instance, if you decide to write about a specific topic, you may want to consider taking a narrow approach, as opposed to a broad one. This is because taking a narrow approach gives you the opportunity to cover more ground and provide your readers with a much wider range of material. Let’s say you’ve decided to write about web design, and you’ve built a fairly large personal blog in the process. You can take this opportunity to cover everything from typography to colors, as well as the various tools and software that are available to web designers. This may seem like a lot to take in, and it is, however, it’s all extremely relevant and valuable information for your readers, as it will help them become more proficient at what they do, and improve their workflows. So, by taking a narrow approach, you allow for greater flexibility in terms of the content you can generate, as well as the formats in which you can present this content (e.g. graphics, charts, etc.).

The opposite is true if you choose to write about general subject matters. In this case, you might want to take a broad approach, as opposed to a narrow one. This is because, as the name implies, a general blog article will cover a wide range of topics, but they will all relate to one central theme, or question. It can be quite the challenge to write something of this nature, as you’ll have to consider what’s most relevant to your target audience, which could mean you have to do some research in order to build up a genuine, useful guide for your readers. For example, if you’ve built a food blog around the premise that eating healthy is a step towards becoming more attractive, you could write an article that addresses the various nutrients that are necessary for the human body to function properly. This could include vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A, selenium, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids, amongst others.

The choice is entirely up to you, but consider what’s most relevant to your target audience, and you’ll be able to pick up a useful, and often amusing, guide, or an engaging anecdote, about any given topic.

Curate Material For Your Blog

There are several ways in which you can generate content for your blog. You can start by taking a look at what you’ve already got, and see what you can contribute to the conversation. If you’re not sure where to begin, take a look at some of the most popular blogs in your niche, and see what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it. Popular blogs usually develop a unique brand voice, and consistent look and design, which can be used as a base from which to build your blog.

Another way to generate content for your blog is to look at the various forums, and social media platforms, that your target audience uses, in order to find relevant discussions, and contribute to them. The great thing about this approach is that it gives you the opportunity to interact with your audience, and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. You can use forums and social media to gain credibility, while also providing your audience with content that they can value and benefit from.

Ultimately, you want to find a way to connect with your audience, and create content that they value, and ultimately, find helpful. The above two tips will get you started quickly and easily, so you can begin building your blog, and making content for it. From there, you can develop and grow your blog, into a valuable resource for your industry.