It seems that everyone, from individuals to the most mundane of businesses, is starting a blog. The reasons vary from the fact that content marketing and digital footprint matter to businesses and where they rank in search engines to the fact that individuals have a story to tell, and they want to share it not only with friends and family, but with the world.
Starting a blog can be easy, from getting a free site from WordPress, Wix, Blogger, or some other generic site, or purchasing a unique domain name and starting a blog for your business, or even adding a blog to your current business site.
Before you even get started though, here are five things you should consider.
Your Domain Name
Your domain name is the first impression people have of you and your site. If you are an individual simply putting together a blog to share your personal story, a free blog name might be just fine, but if you want more traffic or want to make a better impression on users, a domain name of your own is important.
Also, if you are a business, your domain name is vital. There are a few keys to keep in mind. You want your name to represent who you are and what you do, or ideally both. This speaks to the relevance of your name and will help you with SEO (more on that in a moment).
One thing to watch for is that when you run names together or use abbreviations, sometimes this results in unfortunate combinations. Be aware of these before you choose your name. While americanscrapmetal makes a great joke, it is not what you want your business to be known for.
Select your domain name carefully, keeping in mind what it inspires in the user the first time they see or hear it. Try to keep it simple to spell, say, and type into a web browser. This makes your site easier to find.
Your Web Host
There are two types of host, a shared host and a dedicated host. For most people, shared hosting like that offered by GoDaddy and others works just fine. However, if you start to get much more web traffic, a dedicated host will be a better answer, and keep your site from slowing down or worse, crashing at high traffic times.
Shared hosting is much less expensive than dedicated hosting, so if you do not need dedicated hosting yet, you can always move to it later. The key is to make sure that the hosting company you choose offers both options, so you can move up if and when you need to.
Your Web Design
Your domain name is the first impression people have of you and your business, but the design of your website is close behind. As soon as they click on the link in Google, they see your home page or the particular page they are landing on.
Many factors go into good design, including color, font, photos, and whether or not your site works well with mobile. Since over 60% of searches originate on mobile devices, this is key, whether your site is responsive or complies with the Google AMP project requirements.
Colors also send a vital message, and don’t neglect the psychology of color when thinking about design. Some colors indicate caution and are good with a site talking about safety and security, but the same colors make it less likely for the customer to buy furniture or clothing.
When it comes to a blog, you want the user to feel welcome and comfortable, so they will stay and read your content. Fonts that are easy to read, the avoidance of fancy colors, and choosing a clean looking theme that fits with your topic is key to your site’s success.
SEO
Besides design, you need to keep the SEO of your website in mind, regardless of why you are blogging. While individual bloggers will sometimes argue this is unnecessary, the reason they are creating a blog is so that it will be read. The same is true of businesses. The only way users will find and read your blog is if your SEO is right on.
So what is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization but is about more than just the keywords on the page or the titles of your pages or posts. It is also about the way your website is coded and designed. Just like the appearance of your site matters as it is the impression users get of your site, the coding matters because it is what makes the first impression Google and other search engines have of your site.
This matters because you want your site to be discoverable, and discoverability is the number one obstacle to building traffic. No person or business knows enough people to have significant traffic on their blog or website regularly. You either earn organic traffic because users share your site and the information you provide there, or you have to purchase traffic through advertising.
Earning organic traffic is more work at first, but it is more sustainable, and less expensive over the long term. This is why SEO is so important. If search engines know what your site is about, that it has good authority and is liked by others, you will rank higher and get more traffic.
Monetization
Finally, running a website will at the least cost you time, and at least some money. Ideally you would like to earn that money back, right? You can do this a number of ways. Once you have enough traffic, your site may even pay you.
Native Ads: We have all experienced searching something on Google and having ads appear on the next site we visit for that very thing. We have also seen ads with related articles or for books, products, or services that relate to what we are reading.
These are called native ads. They are offered by Google, Amazon, and other companies. They usually involve placing a code specific places on your site. Each time someone clicks on one of these ads, you get paid.
Sponsored Posts: If your site gets a lot of traffic, people will want to advertise there. Often they will offer to pay you to post ads about their brand. These are called sponsored posts, and can earn you a great deal of money.
Site Sponsor: If you are in a particular niche, sometimes you can get a site sponsor who will pay you to have their ads on your site all the time, and not run ads for their competition.
All of these can help you make money from your blog.
Starting a blog is easy. Doing it right is harder. Consider these five things before you even begin, and your blog will be much more successful .