In recent years, blogging has become one of those unexpected avenues to launch a fulfilling career. If you’re blogging as a hobby, it can be a fun, low pressure way to develop your writing skill and share a topic you enjoy with the internet. But, if you want to turn blogging into a source of income, there are ways to improve your skills and succeed as a professional blogger. Read on to learn how you can build a successful blog with no previous experience.
Improve Your Writing Skills
There is a plethora of free writing courses out there, many of which can certainly offer insight into improving your skills. Nonetheless, there is a limit to the scope of these courses. Online paid courses can seriously fluctuate in quality, and you often don’t know what you’re getting until you’ve paid. On the other hand, a degree in literature, technical, or creative writing will help your career take off, no matter what other forms of paid writing work you might branch out into. There are private lending companies to help with college tuition in the form of student loans. A degree will also give you a significant edge in the form of constructive feedback on your writing. You may also choose to look into joining a writer’s critique group to help improve your writing skills and writing form.
Be Consistent
It doesn’t matter whether you plan to blog daily, weekly, or even monthly. What does matter is whether you stick to the schedule you set yourself. Any readership, no matter how small, expects a certain level of consistency, and keeping your literary promises will show professionalism. The problem is that as a young blogger, you may be tempted to set an ambitious schedule which is tough to stick to. Especially while you’re still learning the ropes, you may find it takes longer to write each story than you’d anticipated. Try to be more realistic with your writing goals. As you get more practiced, your writing speed will improve and, if you want, you can adjust your schedule.
Learn How SEO Works
This one isn’t necessary when you’re just starting out on your journey as a blogger, but as you start to get more confident in your writing style and technique, it will surely be worth taking some time to understand how SEO (also known as Search Engine Optimization) works. Over time you will be able to create SEO friendly articles organically. In essence, the skill will help you to improve your blog’s visibility when you want to increase your readership and take your platform to the next level.
Have Passion for Your Niche
Even if you love to write, there are always times when writer’s block strikes and you might struggle to meet your writing commitments. This will be ten times harder if you aren’t personally attached to the topic you’re writing about. Sure, a cooking blog might be all the rage, but if the thing you’re passionate about is chicken keeping, write about those chickens. When you set your own schedule, you really need to be disciplined about sticking to your goals. A genuine passion for your blog will make it much easier to remain diligent about writing each week or month.
Utilize Your Skills as a Storyteller
The good news is that we are all storytellers. As humans, we learn by telling and hearing stories, so you can do this. It’s a skill that can always be made better but having a natural aptitude for the talent can help you get started when you still need to develop your writing skills. Think about the story you intend to tell with each blog – use this to outline your work and inform the direction it will take. You’ll naturally improve at this as your skills improve. If you aren’t sure how to write something, try saying it out loud and typing what you say. If it flows off the tongue, it will probably do well on the page. You can also read your work aloud to check for errors when editing.
Learn How to Market Yourself
Understanding how to effectively share your work with a larger audience will help you to build up a loyal readership and turn blogging into more than just a hobby. There are groups on platforms like Facebook that you can use to share your group, or you could join groups related to the topic you’re writing about. Remember to be respectful and follow any group rules. There are also writing forums online, as well as writing contests, which are a fantastic way to diversify your writing experience and gain exposure.
Pay Attention to Your Statistics
Depending on where your blog is hosted, you may already have some built-in options for tracking your statistics. If not, consider spending some time researching the options available and make use of the statistics that you think will serve your imminently thriving blog well. Setting aside the number of readers you get, it can be extremely useful to know how far through your articles each reader gets, and how long they spend browsing your website. This will help you track where your writing might be dropping in quality or adjust the way you lay out your content. Writing well and marketing yourself effectively are the key drivers to developing a quality, well-received blog. Assessing how your audience interacts with your content will take it to the next step.
