How To Start A Successful Blog: Tips & Strategies
January 3, 2024
Sarvesh Bagla
What has been updated from the old blog post:
- Additional content to the introduction section
- Added Why Does Blogging Still Remain Relevant? section
- Added How To Start a Successful Blog section
- Added Final Thoughts section
Summary: This blog provides a guide to starting a successful blog, including picking a niche, understanding the audience, choosing the right platform, creating compelling content, and employing SEO strategies.
It emphasizes the importance of deep research, social media sharing, and continuous analysis and adaptation of strategies. Insights from a successful Indian blogger, Kulwant Nagi are included, highlighting the mindset and strategies required for success in blogging.
In an era where short-form content, especially videos has captured the attention of users, leading to a lower attention span, the pertinent question that’s on content creators’ minds is, “Is blogging still a player in this fast-paced digital world?”
The rise of popular microblogging services, the likes of ‘X’, where a single tweet can spark a global conversation, has created a sense of insecurity among long-form content creators.
However, the fact remains that blogging is still alive and kicking and will continue to do so, in the foreseeable future. As per Semrush, blogs are still considered a preferred content format for readers, wherein 55% of content creators focus on short-form and long-form content.
Despite the hue and cry of ‘blogging has reached its end’, the statistics of published blog content and blog usage suggest otherwise. WordPress, widely known as one of the biggest blogging platforms in the world, is a testament to the relevance of blogging and its continuous rise.
Here are a few interesting statistics from WordPress to affirm the popularity of blogging.
- 70 million blog posts published every month with 77 million new comments
- Over 120 languages with English reigning supreme at 71%
- TED, CNN & TechCrunch, are among the popular brands on WordPress
- More than 409 million users view over 20 billion pages every month
These statistics indicate that blogging is indeed alive and will continue to do so. However, with the evolving content trends, traditional blogging will not suffice. Adjusting to the new content consumption trends is necessary to thrive in the blogging world.
In this article, we’ll discuss the future of blogging and the strategies required by content creators to leverage this platform.
Why Does Blogging Still Remain Relevant?
Blogging still holds a more significant value and continues to attract readers compared to posts on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. With blogging’s relevance still intact, here are the reasons, why!
A platform for in-depth content
Blogging provides a platform for content that can do deep dives into topics that require comprehensive discussions. Unlike social media, which offers space for skimmed content, blogging allows content creators to publish content that is targeted at users looking for in-depth exploration.
SEO powerhouse
Blogging enables content creators to leverage SEO and gain higher rankings in search results. Blogging provides a unique platform, where it’s to publish high-quality, informative, and keyword-rich content to improve search engine rankings and attract organic traffic.
Facilitates branding and thought leadership
Blogging provides an excellent platform to promote your brand and establish yourself as an expert in your niche. By publishing informative content, you can share your perspectives and encourage discussions, thus building your brand’s credibility.
Monetization
By publishing engaging, relevant, and informative content, you can easily turn your blog into a money machine. Blogging also serves as a great tool to attract more traffic to your website, which can turn into conversions and provide enhanced ROI.
How To Start a Successful Blog
Pick your niche
Before setting the keyboard on fire, it’s best to identify the topic or niche that you have expertise in or are passionate about. This makes it easier for you to churn out engaging content, thus attracting users to your blog.
Understand your audience
Selecting your niche is all well and good, but it becomes irrelevant if you don’t know who your audience is. Understanding your audience’s needs and preferences will guide your content strategy and style, leading to enhanced user engagement.
The right platform is the key
Conduct a little research into the best available blogging platforms and select the one that matches your needs. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to publishing content. Take into consideration crucial factors, such as ease of use, scalability, and customization. Popular choices include WordPress, Blogger, and Squarespace.
Create compelling content
Content is the heart of your blog. Focus on creating high-quality, original, and engaging content. Use a mix of formats, like articles, videos, and infographics, to keep your audience interested.
Deep-dive
Blogging is all about comprehensive research and presenting relevant information in an easy-to-read format. Long-form content gives you the freedom to ensure that you’ve given all the information the users are looking for, in one place.
It’s best to check the posts published by your competitors, identify what you might have missed, and make the content better. The aim should be to make the blog keyword-rich, informative, and engaging, to rank higher and get more users to your blog.
Social media sharing
It’s pointless to create top-notch content if you can’t share it with the world. Use the power of social media to share your content on popular platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. This helps you target new audiences and gives you a great chance to repurpose content, instead of having to write fresh ones for every platform.
Make your blog SEO-friendly
Understanding the basic concepts of SEO is vital for the success of your blog Utilize relevant keywords, optimize the images, and structure the posts to boost your visibility in search engine results and achieve higher rankings.
Monetization strategies
Once you have established a steady audience, explore different monetization avenues. Be it through direct advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, or selling your products, there are numerous ways to monetize your blog effectively.
Analyse and adapt
Use performance analysis tools, such as Google Analytics and in-blog analytics to understand how well your blog is performing. Focus on key metrics, such as traffic origin, audience behavior, and content engagement, which will help you identify the shortcomings and refine your strategies accordingly.
All the above-mentioned steps will help you create and maintain a great blog, as long as your content is amazing. But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what Kulwant Nagi, a prominent Indian blogger had to say about, succeeding at blogging.
He is a Haryana-based blogger, Internet Entrepreneur, and a professional in affiliate marketing. Mr. Nagi started blogging in 2011 and became a leading blogger within three years. He runs a blog called “Blogging Cage”, which is basically about blogging and online money-making tips.
Interview with Kulwant Nagi
Techmagnate
Kulwant, you have achieved remarkable success as a blogger. Could you please share with us how did it all start?
Kulwant
Success is a mindset. Once you make your mind up to achieve it, you are going to get it for sure. When you put your 100% energy in one direction, results are bound to follow.
I started with a vision to become one of the top bloggers in India. When I started blogging in 2011, I was not good at English, so I started taking English classes in my city. I was also not good at public speaking, so I started speaking daily on different topics when I was taking my English classes.
So the first thing here is – to identify where you are lacking. Work on all those things that can ensure your success.
Keep on doing your best in the direction, where you want to see yourself. I started writing articles daily, and I used to read a lot. I used to understand the tone of different bloggers; how they write; how they present the content and how they follow their content marketing strategy on different sites.
Soon enough, I discovered the ingredients of my success and I was on the way to becoming a successful blogger.
Techmagnate
How can blogging be used to bring traffic to a website? Please suggest a blogging roadmap for startups.
Kulwant
Getting traffic on a website remains one of the biggest tasks and a big headache for bloggers.
Rather than recommending ways to drive traffic to your website, I would recommend you go through this blog post and start implementing the ideas mentioned there.
Additional Read – How to Increase Website Traffic through Search Engines?
Techmagnate
What are the dos and don’ts of blogging? How can ROI be maximized with blogging?
Kulwant
The dos and don’ts of blogging are as follows:
Dos:
- Stick to one niche for at least 3-4 months to understand it completely.
- Consider blogging as a business, so invest time & money in it.
- Analyze what prominent bloggers do and understand how they are doing it.
- Read good books to keep yourself motivated.
- Follow the 80:20 rule. 20% effort to write the article, 80% to promote it.
Don’ts
- Don’t look for any magic tricks to make quick money.
- Don’t get distracted by other people’s income on social media optimization.
- Never run for the backlinks. The cornerstone content will get links automatically and most important of all.
- Avoid cracked themes and plugins to protect your blog from hacking.
Additional Read: The Cornerstone Content Checklist
Techmagnate
How much time is required for a new blog to start working on your SEO/digital marketing objectives?
Kulwant
There are no thumb rules for this.
It depends on the subject-specific knowledge of the blogger and his power to understand things at a deeper level.
Search Engine Optimization services are a complete science, which includes many elements to perform well on search engines. In my view, a person can understand SEO basics within 5 to 6 months.
Techmagnate
How can a blog be promoted to grow traffic, links, and shares?
Kulwant
I love guest blogging. You can approach some great bloggers in your industry and ask them to let you submit a guest post on their blog.
By doing this, you not only get traffic on your blog but you also get quality backlinks. You can do some outreach by requesting top bloggers in the blogger community to share your blog post on their Facebook walls, pages, and Twitter profiles.
Getting shares on your blog post is very simple – when you finish your blog post, ask people to share it.
We are living in a sort of lazy world, where required actions are not taken until one is specifically asked to act. So when you finish your blog post asking people to share forward, they are likely to follow. It works!
Did you Know: As an expert Guest Post Agency, Techmagnate offers high-quality blogging services in India
Techmagnate
What’s your advice to young bloggers and digital marketers?
Kulwant
Blogging is a vast profession, which has changed the lives of many people across the globe. When you decide to become a blogger, come here with a billionaire’s mindset (alright, potential billionaire’s mindset) because blogging is a billion-dollar industry.
Blogging not only generates money, but it also draws respect and fame for bloggers at the global level.
Honestly, I never thought of becoming a public figure, but because of blogging, people all across India now know me very well and I keep getting invitations to speak at different events.
So treat blogging as a profession in its own right and proceed with the required mindset.
Final Thoughts
Blogging remains a vital, dynamic platform for digital expression and communication. Its adaptability, depth, and personalization make it an ideal medium in the ever-evolving digital space.
By understanding its ongoing relevance and following a strategic approach to starting and maintaining a blog, individuals, and businesses can leverage this powerful medium for personal, professional, and financial growth.