In the digital era, blogging has emerged as a highly favored medium of self-expression and communication. It presents a remarkable opportunity for individuals, such as writers, artists, and experts, to share their thoughts and connect with like-minded people. However, like any new venture, blogging comes with its own set of challenges and lessons to be learned.
This article aims to explore the experiences of seasoned bloggers and the insights they wish they had possessed when they first started their blogs.
1. Pick the Right-Size Niche for Your Content
Picking the right niche is crucial to the success of your blog. Many individuals choose a niche that is too broad, making it challenging to find a specific audience. They get their blog lost in the sea of other similar blogs.
Major companies tend to aim for vast markets, which are known as the Total Addressable Market or TAM. Pursuing a larger market is advantageous because it’s simpler to capture a small percentage of a massive market than to acquire a significant share of a smaller market.
The market’s size determines its potential for marketing, conversion rate optimization, and other strategies. While SEO can have a decent-sized TAM, paid advertising has a much larger TAM. As a result, it’s crucial to concentrate on a niche that has the potential to expand into a bigger TAM to guarantee long-term success.
However, if you pick a niche that cannot be broadened into a larger TAM, it may not generate much traffic. Typically, small niches don’t receive significant search traffic, whereas larger niches tend to attract much more traffic. A large TAM presents the opportunity for significant traffic, which is critical for your blog’s success.
Once you’ve identified your niche, research your competition and see what other bloggers are writing about. This will help you narrow down your focus and find a unique angle to stand out from the crowd. You can also use keyword research tools to identify popular search terms related to your niche.
2. Don’t Limit What Platform You Use
When it comes to blogging, it’s important not to limit yourself to just one platform. While it might be tempting to focus all of your efforts on a single platform, such as WordPress or Blogger, doing so can limit your reach and potentially hinder the growth of your blog.
Different platforms offer different features and tools that can help you promote and grow your blog. For example, social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram can be great for promoting your blog and building a following. On the other hand, video platforms like YouTube can be an excellent way to create engaging and informative content for your readers.
Additionally, by using multiple platforms, you can reach a broader audience and diversify your traffic sources. If you rely solely on search engine traffic, your blog may be vulnerable to fluctuations in search engine algorithms that could negatively impact your traffic.
Ultimately, the key is to use the platforms that work best for your blog and your target audience. Experiment with different platforms and see which ones generate the most traffic and engagement for your blog.
3. Links Are Everything for Your Content
Links are an essential element of any successful blog, and they play a critical role in helping you build your audience, establish your authority, and improve your search engine rankings.
Search engines like Google use links as one of the key ranking factors to determine the relevance and authority of your blog. When other high-quality websites link to your content. It signals to search engines that your content is valuable and authoritative. This can help improve your rankings and increase your visibility in search results.
Whenever you share content on social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or YouTube, it is always advisable to include links back to your blog posts. The reason behind this is that it will help you generate more traffic to your blog.
4. Do What You Can to Stand Out
According to a survey, almost one-third of marketers consider visuals as the most crucial type of content for their business. Therefore, incorporating high-quality visuals into your blog posts is crucial.
The use of infographics, for instance, can significantly enhance the value of your content, leading to increased social shares, backlinks, and improved SEO performance. Some have discovered the value of infographics later in their blogging journey, and it made a substantial impact on their success.
Your writing style and tone of voice can also set you apart from other bloggers in your niche. You should develop a distinct writing style that reflects your personality and resonates with your audience.
Providing original and valuable content that your target audience cannot find anywhere else can also help you stand out. Conduct in-depth research, offer expert opinions, and provide your readers with unique perspectives on topics related to your niche.
5. Update Your Old Content
Updating old content on your blog is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, updating old content improves the overall quality and relevance of your blog, making it more valuable for your audience. This can help attract new readers and keep existing ones engaged.
Additionally, search engines favor fresh, updated content, so regularly updating old posts can improve your search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your blog. It’s also an opportunity to fix any errors, broken links, or outdated information, making your blog more reliable and trustworthy to your readers.
Finally, updating old content allows you to repurpose it into new formats or for new audiences, such as turning an old blog post into a video or podcast episode.
It is not sufficient to keep churning out new content since there is already an abundance of repetitive content on the internet. To maintain a high ranking, it is crucial to keep your content fresh and up-to-date, similar to how Wikipedia operates.
Consider how often Wikipedia appears in search results for a variety of topics; this is due to the consistent refreshing and updating of their content.
6. Don’t Blog on the Same Topic Over and Over Again
Repetitive blogging on the same topic can make your blog tedious and uninteresting to your audience, which can result in disengagement and loss of interest.
Moreover, continually producing content on the same topic can restrict your creativity and hinder your exploration of other areas. Therefore, it is crucial to diversify your content and keep it fresh to maintain reader engagement and attract new ones.
To avoid repeating the same topic in your blog, it is better to focus on creating one comprehensive and detailed post instead of multiple posts that cover the same information. This approach is similar to that of Wikipedia— which prioritizes longer, more in-depth pages on a topic rather than several shorter pages on the same subject.
This strategy helps to avoid confusing search engines such as Google and ensures that the content is of high quality, providing value to your audience.
By branching out and exploring different topics related to your niche, you can showcase your expertise and provide value to your audience in innovative ways. Furthermore, covering various topics can help you broaden your readership and potentially draw new readers to your blog.
7. Be Consistent in Producing Content
To maintain consistent traffic on your blog, it’s crucial to produce content regularly. If you stop being consistent, you will likely see a significant drop in traffic.
The data from Click Sprout showed that even taking one month off can cause traffic to take more than three months to recover. Therefore, it’s essential to remain consistent with your content creation to prevent losing your traffic. Once lost, it can be challenging to regain it, and it may take even longer to recover than the time you spent being inconsistent.
