How to Move a Website from Practice to Publish on WordPress
I want to tell you about a dream I have had for a while now. I want to help you make this dream a reality and give you the tips and tricks I have used to make my own website more useful and more popular.
I have always wanted to create a blog that I could use to share my knowledge and experience with other designers. I love sharing my work with others so much that I even considered doing so as a side hobby. The thing is, I had no idea how to even begin creating such a blog. I knew nothing about what I was doing and how to do it right. I knew absolutely nothing about blogging or websites in general.
Even now, 3 years later, I am still not completely sure how to approach blogging creatively and effectively. I’ve always believed that everyone should have the ability to blog and share their knowledge and experience with the world. I’ve seen how much potential there is in blogging and how much it can help businesses, brands, and individuals.
Now, I want to teach you the basics so you can start creating your own blog. This blog post will tell you everything you need to know about creating a blog that will attract and retain a devoted audience. It will teach you, step-by-step, how to move your website from practice to publish on WordPress so you can begin your blogging journey.
Pick A Niche
The first and most important step to creating a successful blog is to find a niche. When you pick a niche, you are narrowing your target audience and tailoring your content to appeal to a specific group of people. The reason why picking a niche is so crucial is that you will be limited in the topics you can write about otherwise. If you pick a broad topic like “beauty” or “fashion”, you will very likely lose a significant audience because your content will be too general for your readers.
For example, let’s say you are a stylist and you decide to start a blog about fashion. While this may be a very interesting topic to discuss and perhaps even be useful to a small audience, if you are not careful, you may end up saturating the market with too much information. Most people might come across your blog and think “oh, that’s a fashion blog. I must read those articles because I’m interested in fashion too”. As much as you would like to write about everything related to fashion, you need to hone in on a few trendy topics that your readers will find interesting and helpful. In the end, it’s all about picking a niche and becoming the go-to source for that particular topic.
Find Your Voice
Your voice is something unique to you as a writer and is the voice your readers will come back for over and over again. Before you start writing a word, it’s important to define your voice because you will be using it a lot throughout your blog posts. To start, make a list of the things you love most about this topic. For example, I love fashion and I love talking about style. When I decided to start a blog, I quickly remembered these two things and decided to use them as the backbone of my blog. As you might imagine, my style blog focuses heavily on fashion and my other blog, ProBlogger, focuses on blogging.
As you look back at your list, you will see a pattern emerge. Your answers may include items such as unique perspectives, useful tips, interesting stories, or maybe even just a fondness for the topic. Whatever it is, this is the type of content you will want to use when you start developing your blog posts.
The Difference In Content, Tone, And Style
One of the most important things to keep in mind when developing your blog posts is the difference between content, tone, and style. Content is the actual text you are writing – it can be anything from a how-to article to a fictional tale. The tone of your blog post is the way you are presenting the information – it can be as formal or informal as you want it to be. Finally, the style is the way you present yourself through your writing – it can be as formal or as informal as you want it to be. We will discuss each of these factors in turn.
Formal
If you choose a formal style for your blog, you are deciding to write your posts in a very mannerly and structured way. You want your blog to come off like an old-school, step-by-step guide or an Encyclopedia Britannica – very formal and precise.
Usually, bloggers that choose a more formal style use a subheadings system. For example, I would put “How to Write a Review” in the subheadings because I think reviews are an important part of any blog. At the end of each of my blog posts, I typically include a short bio about myself. In this case, I would write “Author Bio” and then list all my qualifications and skills. I would then go on to list all the different types of material I have published previously. This is where I would include my reviews because they are the most important part of my blog. The reason I would write the word “review” as a heading in my post is because I think it’s important for my readers to know what this particular post is about before they start reading it. With the formal style, you want to make sure your content is easy to understand and error-free. In terms of visual style, you want to keep things very simple and uncluttered. You want your posts to look like they were just typed up on a keyboard rather than like a designer drew them up on a computer screen. Use a sans-serif font and keep paragraphs short and sweet.
Informal
If you pick an informal style for your blog, you are deciding to write your posts in an approachable and engaging way. You want your blog to come off like a conversation with an old friend rather than a set of instructions – very informal and candid.
Usually, bloggers that choose an informal style use a subheadings system. For example, I would write a short blog post about “How to Choose A Suitable Wedding Venue” and then list all the important things you need to consider when choosing a wedding venue. At the end of each of my blog posts, I include a short bio about myself. In this case, I would write “Author Bio” and then list all my qualifications and skills. I would then go on to list all the different types of material I have published previously. This is where I would include my reviews because I think it’s important for my readers to know what this particular post is about before they start reading it. With the informal style, you want to make sure your content is interesting and engaging. In terms of visual style, you want to keep things very simple and uncluttered. You want your posts to look like they were just typed up on a keyboard rather than like a designer drew them up on a computer screen. Use a serif font and keep paragraphs medium-sized.
Unique
If you want your blog posts to stand out, make sure your posts are unique in some way. This could be through the use of unusual words or phrases, the inclusion of helpful tips, or maybe even just the way you present the information. I’m sure you can come up with some innovative ideas of your own that will make your blog posts unique. Remember, the more unique you can make your content the more memorable it will be to your audience.
Useful
Your blog posts should be both useful and interesting to your audience. If you pick a niche that you know will be useful to your readers, there is no reason to keep writing about things you know nothing about. If you want to write about fashion, make sure there is some aspect of fashion design, style, or trends that you can contribute to. For example, if you are an expert in colour palettes and you notice all the fashion blogs choose black and white, you might decide to write a blog post about this subject with some practical tips on how to use these colors effectively. As much as possible, you want to pick a topic that you know will be useful and interesting to your audience. This is the basic principle behind picking a blog niche – make sure there is a reason for everyone to visit your blog regularly.
Attract
No one wants to write about something they aren’t passionate about. This will show through in every aspect of your blog – from the way you write to the images you use to the actual content you present. Passion is a key element to keeping readers interested in whatever you are writing about. If you want to write about fashion, make sure you are expressing an opinion that is useful and interesting to your audience.