Start Your Career in Blogging in 7 Quick Steps

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It doesn’t take much to start a blog as long as you’re committed to being consistent and providing great content.

If you’re interested in starting a blog of your own — I’d say go for it. It doesn’t take much to get started as long as you’re committed to being consistent and providing great content. I’ve rounded up some tips below to help you start your career in blogging in seven quick steps.

1. Choose a Topic

The best writers write what they know. Don’t write about the best ways to prepare exotic meats if you are a vegan, veggie-loving chef. You will run out of things to say and in the long run your blog won’t be very successful because readers want to read from people who live, breath and poop whatever niche they are playing in.

2. Choose a Domain Name

Finding a great domain name can take a while, but it’s worth it. I suggest you pick something brandable and easy to remember. Try to come up with a domain name that you can also use as your social media handle.

3. Choose a Platform

Bloggers who are serious choose WordPress.org  as their blogging platform of choice. There are tons of other blogging platforms including Squarespace, Tumblr and Blogger (hosted by Google).

But since not all platforms are created equal (due to creative limitations, pricing, SEO, security, etc), it’s best to research and find the platform that will best suite your blogging needs. My blog is built on WordPress.org.

4. Choose a Host

Bluehost is a user-friendly hosting service. GoDaddy is another hosting service that I recommend to most of the clients and new bloggers that I work with.

Solutions like Blogger and Tumblr are free, but are limited. They don’t offer all the sweet plugins, features and options that a shared hosted or self-hosted WordPress blog does.

There is also a difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Serious bloggers use shared hosted or self-hosted services on the WordPress.org platform.

5. Choose a Theme

You can choose from many different layouts and themes. You’ll have to do some research on other blogs you like to see what kind of blog you want for yourself.

BluChic has some great premium themes that are geared toward women-run online businesses. Or you can source an online shop like Creative Market.

6. Create Original Content

As a blogger, the most important thing you can do is to create useful content that solves people’s problems.

By optimizing your content for your audience and making it both useful and relevant to them, you stand a much better chance of gaining traffic, readers and fans.

7. Use Social Media

Social media can be a powerful way to amplify your content and get it front of the right audience. In the beginning, you might have shared your content on your personal social channels but now it’s time to kick it up a notch and create your blog’s own social channels.

Your blog should have its own social handles. Start with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to begin with and branch out from there.

“The hardest part about blogging is coming up with great content to keep your blog fresh and your readers engaged on a consistent basis.”

Final Thoughts

That’s basically the gist of it. It sounds simple, because it is. The hardest part about blogging is coming up with great content to keep your blog fresh and your readers engaged on a consistent basis. It’s no good if you do one really great post a week.

If you are endeavoring to make blogging your career, use a blog editorial calendar to help you to plan on publishing 3 or 4 great posts each week.

In order to be a professional blogger, your #1 goal is to generate traffic, create a loyal readership and ultimately monetize your blog.

The See Girl Work blog is hosted by Bluehost. They can host your blog for as little as $3.95 a month. Since See Girl Work is a  Bluehost affiliate partner, my readers can use this link to also get a free domain name.

 

Images via Connect Socialyte and Career Girl Daily

 

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