23 Blogging Tips For Beginners

1. Start with WordPress . Feel free to call me a walking billboard, but I just swear by WordPress. It has a lot of possibilities and it is also feasible for beginners to work with this. Plugins allow you to completely customize your blog.
2. Have patience. Don’t look at your fellow bloggers who have been at it for years. You will have to work hard to become big, visitors never come out.
3. Determine your target audience or find a niche. Before launching your blog – and also afterwards, this is an ongoing process – think carefully about who you are writing for and about what. Don’t just publish what you like, but try to create a line in your posts. Preferably distinctive. Then you have the best chance of standing out among all the blogs.
4. Be personal . With 1,001 blogs popping up every day, it’s getting harder and harder to stand out and stand out. Personal blogging can help with this.
5. Learn about search engine optimization . My favorite blog tips for beginners and advanced visitors are blog tips about search engine optimization (also called SEO). As an online marketer I have a soft spot for this part of my profession. Because, if you do this right, you can welcome many more visitors in a simple and free way.
6. Make sure your layout doesn’t become a funfair . Although a blog should (please!) look nice, one of the most common (beginner) blogging mistakes is a too busy layout. Avoid these design mistakes and make sure your sidebar doesn’t turn into a funfair.
7. Blog frequently . Blogging every day is not necessarily necessary, although it does ensure greater growth, but at least ensure some regularity. Don’t expect miracles if you post for days in a row and then suddenly not for a month. Visitors want to know what to expect from you. I previously wrote an extensive article on blogging frequency.
8. Only post unique content . Not only are you distinctive if you publish unique content, Google will also value and reward you higher for this unique content. So it gives you more traffic. Unique content does not equal unique topics. The latter is no longer possible with so many blogs. Make sure you have an original approach to your subject and make it your own. Copying texts from other blogs is also a no-go.
9. Only use images that you are actually allowed to use . No, you can’t just do a search in Google Images and then use these photos because they are already on the internet.
10. Get Networking . I can’t say it often enough; your blog stands and falls with networking with other bloggers, or people in your niche. Network and make sure people know who you are, so that they have a reason to (continue to) follow you.
11. Check out the opportunities to monetize your blog . A blog takes a lot of time and if you work on it every day, you may well want something in return. Money for example. There are plenty of options for that.
12. Dig into other blogs within your niche . And respond here. Connect with like-minded people. And not only that; they can also serve as inspiration. What are they doing, do they spot trends that you hadn’t yet spotted, do you see something in them that you might be able to do better?
13. Avoid long chunks of text . Nothing wrong with long articles. In fact; Google used to be the guideline that your article had to contain at least 300 words, research shows that longer articles usually score better in the search engine. Make sure that the article 1) remains interesting 2) is divided into clear paragraphs with scannable headings 3) you use bullets and 4) you emphasize important things. This way visitors can easily pick out what is relevant to them.
14. Provide a natural link profile . If you get good content, you automatically get good links and therefore a natural link profile. Don’t go begging for links everywhere. The same goes for RTs on Twitter; good content will take care of itself.
15. Be realistic . No, you won’t be as big as Linda Ikeji in a month, no matter how hard you try. And no, you will not immediately receive all free products or invitations from PR agencies. Start because you like blogging, because you want to write, want to share. The rest will follow naturally. Or not.
16. Don’t get too commercial . You want a lot with your blog, but the last thing you want is to succumb to commercialism. Find to place a banner on your blog, but put one in the header or in the sidebar and not both. And not in your content either. Besides the fact that Google also looks at this after the last update, your visitor quickly has the idea that you are only doing it for the money. Small chance that they will come back…
17. Give people a reason to view more than one page . Many bloggers get the most traffic from social media. Result: people click on a link, read and immediately leave. Not the most qualitative traffic and also very bad for your bounce rate . Give visitors a reason to look further. How? For example, by linking to other articles, by showing relevant articles or your most read.
18. Put quality before quantity . As important as frequent blogging is, never put quantity over quality. Google will see this, but more importantly; it can make your visitor walk away. I started Theadsensefamily with daily posts. I couldn’t keep up with a new job. I now rather post good articles three times a week. Then grow less quickly.
19. Don’t shamelessly promote your blog via social media . Yes, of course you should use Twitter and Facebook to take your blog to the next level, to get more traffic. But don’t just dump links, because that won’t bring you anything except annoyance with your followers (if you get them in the first place). Make sure you start a conversation with your followers via Twitter, that you build a relationship with them. Then you achieve a lot more!
20. Don’t focus on statistics . At least not every day. It is very good to look at your statistics and take the figures from Google Analytics with you to improve yourself. But if you work with numbers every day, it can sometimes make you very depressed. Because then you suddenly don’t grow so fast…
21. Let the reader know who you are . And not just in the form of the aforementioned tip about personal blogging. But also by creating a great about me page . Which, by the way, isn’t just about you.
22. Learn to deal with criticism . If you’re a public property – and you are as a blogger, although some more than others – you can count on nice reactions, but also criticism. And even to hate comments. Accept this and try to learn from it. But never let it take away from your blogging fun.
23. Write down all your ideas . There comes a time when you’re out of inspiration. How nice is it then that you can fall back on your notebook or Pocket, where you have stored all your ideas?

Do you have any additional blogging tips for beginners? Feel free to leave them here on the comment section!