How to launch your own blog

Whatever your passion is, blogging is a fantastic way to express your creativity. Everyone has something that they want to share with the world. Although blogging is a fairly simple way to get started, there can be quite a lot to get set up initially and even more to gain an audience if that is your goal. It’s always great to know what you are getting into and so you will need to do a fair bit of research, planning and upkeep to ensure that your blog remains successful.

Make the topic something you love Before you type your first word you need to decide which of your passions you would like to write about. Make sure that it is something that other people will be interested in and that it’s something that you can easily write a lot about. It also helps that you do actually know about the subject too. At this point you should be thinking exactly how your blog will look, who your audience will be and what the overall message that you would like to get across should be . Making sure you nail this down from the beginning will ensure your blog has character and will differentiate you from the other bloggers out on the web who are doing the same thing.

Initial steps No you have your chosen topic it’s time to get to work. Initially you are going to need a website. With the popularity of blogs increasing, there are quite a few platforms that are set up specifically for blogging and a lot of them are very easy to set up, even if you have no experience. A lot of them are drag and drop, template style platforms. Indeed, Wordpress was initially set up solely for blogging.

Get your site started We would absolutely recommend using one of the web builder platforms, that way it’s easy to create an attractive and engaging site that makes people want to be looking at it, with very little effort or cost from you. Make sure you use one that appeals to you and the layout is easy for you to navigate. Spend some time to familiarise yourself with how it works and visualise how it may be expanded as the blog gets more popular. If it is a standalone blog, it’s always a good idea to choose an engaging domain name which represents your subject. Don’t be afraid to get some help as well. We would recommend the Blogging Masterclass course from Udemy . This is a great course which will cover all of the basics from inception to a fully fledged blog you can be proud of. It also helps you make the blog profitable too. If you're blogging for your business, Coursera offers a class on using WordPress to start a blog for your business.

Customise for impact Ok so you have your web address and site all good to go, now you’ll have to make sure that you have an awesome logo which will help with your brand identity. This is a lot easier than you might think. You can hire a logo designer if you feel you are not skilled enough in that department. There are many people offering this so have a look on places like freelancer.co.uk, fiverr.com and Etsy. The former two are also great places to find competitively priced web designers as well

Get creating content So now you’re ready to start creating content you need to make sure that your first post is seriously engaging and resonates with your target audience. Ideas for long term content Initially you will already have some ideas about what articles you would like to write. Always write what you know but make sure you think about it from the perspective of the reader too. Think about what might entice you to click on a link to an article. Make sure that the title is relevant and gives the reader instant recognition as to what the following article is about. Don’t just go with paragraph after paragraph of text. Make sure you break the article up with images, videos and graphics. These will add interest and help readers digest the content.

Keep it visual Photography is an important part of your blog. People find images far more interesting that just words. Unless it’s actually a blog about actual photography. An up to date phone should be perfectly suitable to ensure you take great pictures. You could always take an online photography class to help you.

Stay organised It’s a good idea to strategise your blog posts so that you are organised and your most avid readers will know when the next post is coming. You should enter your future blogs into your calendar and give yourself a deadline as to when your next blog needs to be published. Try to coincide with current affairs, trends and times of year so that your readers are already thinking about the subject generally.

Marketing It is important to make sure you market your blog effectively. The team at boost366.co.uk will make sure that you are able to utilise a good SEO strategy to make sure that your blog steadily climbs up the rankings and stays there for maximum exposure. The main thing is that you just get started and have fun along the way. It should really be your passion for the subject that drives you and keeps you updating for a long time to come.