Congratulations on deciding to start a blog! As a blogging expert who has been running successful blogs for over a decade, I want to provide you with the best tips to set you up for blogging greatness right from the start.
Launching and growing a blog can seem intimidating, but breaking down the key steps will make the process much more manageable. I‘ve made plenty of mistakes along my blogging journey – consider this your cheat sheet so you can avoid missteps and achieve blogging success faster.
In this comprehensive guide, you’ll discover:
- How to choose the right niche and stand out from the crowd
- Why you should prioritize creating content over perfecting design
- The key ingredients for developing an effective monetization strategy
- How to leverage analytics to unlock growth opportunities
- Why you need to be building an email list from day one
- A step-by-step checklist for promoting your content
- How to develop a smart content strategy tailored to your goals
- Tips for finding your optimal posting schedule
- The essential headline writing principles every blogger needs
- Why you should thoroughly test tactics before deeming them ineffective
- The special types of content that can accelerate your growth
And plenty more proven tips to shorten your learning curve and help you build a successful blogging business!
Let‘s dive in.
1. Select a Specific, Profitable Niche (And Stick To It)
The first step to blogging success is zeroing in on a profitable, unsaturated niche that you‘re passionate about. Avoid broad niches like "lifestyle blogging"- instead, become laser-focused with your niche selection.
Identify a tight niche by finishing this sentence:
"My blog helps [type of person] who wants to [achieve some goal]"
Some examples:
"My blog helps musicians who want to gain more Spotify streams"
"My blog helps real estate agents who want to close more deals"
"My blog helps gardeners who want to grow tastier tomatoes"
See how specific and action-oriented those niches are? That‘s what you‘re aiming for. Don‘t worry about targeting a small audience initially – it‘s much easier to dominate a niche and then expand your reach slowly over time.
Pro Tip: Make sure your selected niche has profit potential! Research monetization strategies like affiliate marketing, digital products, and sponsored posts that are a natural fit.
2. Discover The "Negative Space" In Your Niche
Once you‘ve identified your specific niche, dig into your competitors and what they‘re doing well or poorly at serving your target audience.
Find gaps or "negative space" where their content or offerings are lacking to uncover prime opportunities for you to provide immense value. Brainstorm content ideas, products, or services you could provide that would help your audience in ways your competitors are not.
For example, that musician blogger may realize no one is providing effective tips on releasing music on Spotify. An accountant blogger may uncover their audience struggles with pricing their services accurately.
By positioning your blog to fill the negative space in your niche, you can stand out immediately and build a loyal audience faster.
Pro Tip: Join relevant Facebook Groups and subreddits to connect with your target audience. Ask them what their biggest challenges are and what they wish existed to solve those struggles. This market research will provide you with a treasure trove of "negative space" ideas!
3. Don’t Worry About Design & Branding (At First)
Especially when you‘re just getting started, high-quality design and elaborate branding should not be priorities. Don‘t let trying to perfect those details delay you from launching your blog and publishing content.
Focus first on creating value for your readers through exceptional content. As long as your blog looks clean and readable, that‘s sufficient in the early days.
Think of design and branding as iterative processes – you‘ll improve them gradually over time as you grow and evolve. Resist perfectionism paralysis! Done is better than perfect when it comes to launching quickly.
Pro Tip: Use a simple yet attractive WordPress theme to easily launch your blog beautifully and focus more on creating content vs. design. The StudioPress Genesis framework paired with one of their themes is a great option.
4. Have a Monetization Plan (But Don‘t Obsess Over It)
It’s wise to consider how you’ll eventually monetize your blog early in your journey. However, you don’t need to implement monetization strategies immediately.
Determining a few potential options will help guide your content and growth strategies though. Brainstorm multiple monetization models that align naturally with your niche and audience. Common ones include:
- Affiliate marketing
- Sponsored posts
- Info products/online courses
- Premium memberships
- Display advertising
- Freelancing services
Research to determine if any of those models seem viable. But don‘t stress over optimizing for monetization yet – focus on attracting and nurturing your audience first and foremost.
Pro Tip: Once you launch affiliate marketing, don‘t overloaded your content with affiliate links. Use them selectively and ensure they provide real value for your readers vs. feeling "salesy."
5. Install Analytics To Unlock Growth Opportunities
They say "what gets measured gets improved" – and that definitely applies to your blog! Without understanding your blog traffic and audience behavior data, it‘s impossible to strategically optimize your growth.
Some top analytics platforms to consider installing are:
- Google Analytics – The industry standard analytics platform – free but somewhat complex
- Simple Analytics – Extremely user-friendly with all the key metrics – $19/month
- Monster Insights – A popular Google Analytics plug-in for WordPress sites
Once you‘ve installed analytics, pay attention to key metrics like:
- Sessions
- Unique visitors
- Bounce rate
- Pages per session
- Traffic sources
- Top landing/exit pages
Analyze those metrics regularly to determine opportunities to improve engagement and increase conversions.
Pro Tip: Install heatmap software like CrazyEgg or Clicky to uncover how people are actually interacting with each page on your site. This will highlight areas for optimization.
6. Start Building Your Email List Immediately
While social media is important, email newsletter subscribers are invaluable. They provide you with a direct line of communication to an invested audience not at the mercy of finicky algorithms.
Yet many bloggers wait way too long to start building their email lists!
Begin growing your list from day one by:
- Installing email newsletter software like ConvertKit
- Creating a compelling freebie "lead magnet" to encourage signups
- Building a dedicated landing page for your lead magent
- Adding email signup forms throughout your blog
- Sending regular, valuable email newsletters to nurture subscribers
Don‘t expect astronomical open/click rates at first – focus on delivering consistent value rather than optimizing metrics this early.
Pro Tip: Segment your email list based on traffic source, interests, or engagement to send hyper-targeted emails that resonate more with each subgroup.
7. Develop a Flexible yet Consistent Content Promotion Strategy
Creating exceptional content is only half the battle – you need to master promoting that content to drive traffic. Develop a tailored content promotion strategy incorporating channels like:
- Email lists
- Social media
- Industry forums
- Facebook groups
- Quora
- Niche aggregators
But don‘t execute every element for every post – customize your promotion based on the content piece‘s purpose and best channels.
One good framework:
- High-effort articles – Heavy promotion across all channels
- Evergreen, informational – Moderate promotion focus on search/social
- Quick tips/updates – Light promotion to current audience
Pro Tip: Spend time identifying and engaging in niche communities relevant to your target audience for promotion opportunities. Provide value consistently within groups before directly promoting your content.
8. Map Content to Business Goals with "RELCR" Framework
To ensure you have a balanced, goal-oriented content strategy, I recommend categorizing each piece of content by one of five types:
RELCR:
- R – Rank – Optimized to rank in search engines like Google
- E – Engage – Entertainment/education for existing audience
- L – Links – Focused on earning backlinks vs. rankings
- C – Convert – Promote products, services, or incentivize email signups
- R – Reach – Expand to new audiences, particularly via social media
Analyze what proportions of each category you currently have and consciously create more content filling in any gaps.
For example, you may realize you need more "link earning" content that ranks well for informational keywords and convinces websites to link back to your posts.
Pro Tip: If just starting out, focus heavily on Rank and Reach content to widen your audience reach. As you grow your following, shift towards more Engage and Convert content.
9. Experiment to Discover Your Ideal Posting Schedule
You’ll often hear advice around the “best” days and times to publish your blog content for maximum visibility. But the reality is that it depends completely on your niche and audience.
Rather than accepting generalized recommendations, run your own tests to determine what posting schedule resonates best with your readers.
Analyze metrics like sessions and social media engagement at different publishing times over a few months. Pay attention to what resonates best with your audience.
You might be surprised to learn Saturday afternoons perform better than Tuesday mornings! Let real data guide your scheduling, not assumptions.
Pro Tip: According to your analytics, identify when your audience is most engaged on your site or social channels . Use that as a starting point for testing publishing times.
10. Obsess Over Headlines (They’re That Critical)
Headlines are critical for catching readers‘ attention amongst the avalanche of content competing for their eyeballs. That‘s why I recommend spending up to 50-75% of your content creation time perfecting your headline.
Use compelling emotional triggers like the following frameworks for blog post headlines:
- Numbered List (7 Ways to… )
- Curiosity Gap (The Surprising Reason You…)
- Benefit-Driven (How To ______ To Achieve ______)
- Warning (Never Make This Common ______ Mistake)
Analyze top bloggers in your industry to identify what headline formulas resonate in your niche currently. Model what works while infusing your unique style.
Pro Tip: Write at least 10 different headline options per piece of content. The first few will likely be mediocre but pushing yourself leads to brilliance.
11. Stay Committed to Tactics That Align With Your Goals
When trying marketing tactics and promotional strategies for your blog, too many people give up at the first sign of struggle.
But very few highly effective tactics will yield overnight results. You need to stay committed to tactics that move you towards your goals for an extended period to properly evaluate them.
For example, guest posting and link building activities may take 3-6 months of consistent effort before you begin reaping the SEO benefits. But the compound effect can be immense.
Pro Tip: For "long game" tactics, determine an appropriate testing timeframe based on reasonable expectations. And track quantifiable results to monitor for momentum over time.
12.Mix In Special Content Types That Attract Links & Shares
While you want most of your content to deliver tangible value, occasionally mixing in viral content formats will accelerate your growth.
In particular, leverage quiz-style and list-based posts across your channels.
For example:
- "What {Niche Topic} Are You?" Quizzes
- "Which {Famous Person} Are You Most Like?" Quizzes
- "Can We Guess Your Favorite {Niche Hobby} Based on Your Food Preferences?" Quizzes
- "The 13 Best {Niche Related Items} for 2024"
- "Ranking the 9 Most Influential People in {Your Niche}"
These irresistible content pieces tend to attract tons of shares, links, and new visitors – fueling your growth.
Pro Tip: Repurpose quiz or list-based posts across your blog, email newsletters, and social media for maximum impact.
Wrap Up
Blogging success doesn‘t happen accidentally. It requires understanding critical success factors and executing fundamentals consistently over an extended period.
Leverage these tips to shorten your learning curve while avoiding common mistakes I see far too many new bloggers make.
Most importantly, don‘t become overwhelmed or give up prematurely. Building an audience and profitable blogging business takes time and commitment. But the rewards make every ounce of effort worthwhile.
Here‘s to your wild and wonderful blogging journey ahead! Please drop any questions in the comments below.
