Bizngr receives lots of mails asking for advice on how to start a blog, about blog topics, increasing traffic, creating meaningful contents etc.

We have compiled some of the advice we usually recommend to our clients.

Discover Your Niche:

You don’t just blog about anything. You have to define your brand. What are you passionate about? Football? Cooking? Being a parent? Have you found your passion? If so, whatever it is, write about that. If not, then you must first discover your passion. Don’t blog about something unless you have a unique perspective if not you may get drown in the blogosphere.

Identify Your Ideal Readers:

Once you’ve discovered your niche, you need to know who will be reading your work. For example, we write about business and finance; our ideal readers are business and career people, investment professionals, entrepreneurs etc. Tailor your writing to your readers (whether it’s your family or your community or whoever else will read your blog).

Add Value:

There is no negotiating here. Your content must add value to your readers’ lives. This is the only way you will get Great Quality Readers to your site (and keep them coming back). Adding value is the only way to get someone’s long-term loyalty.

Be Unique:

Yes, there are other blogs out there about the same thing you want to write about. Q: So why is your blog any different? A: Because of you. You are what makes your blog different; it’s about your perspective, your creativity, the value that you add.

Be Interesting:

Write epic, awesome content especially if you want people to share it with others.

Be Real

Your blog needs to be real—it needs to feel real—if you want people to read it. You can be your blog or your blog can be you. That is, do you really embody the things that you write about? If not, people will see through you. “Be the change you want to see in the world,” is the famous Gandhi quote. Perhaps bloggers should be the blog they want to write for the world.

Transparency:

Being transparent is different from being honest. You need not share every detail about your life just for the sake of being honest. Always be honest, and be transparent when it adds value to what you’re writing.

Time:

Once you’ve learned how to start a blog, you’ll learn that blogging takes a lot of time. Once you have your design set up, don’t tweak it too much rather spend the time on your writing.

Vision:

The primary reason our site design looks good is because we have a great host, we have a great theme, and most important, we had a vision of how we wanted our site to look. Once we had the vision, we worked hard to make that vision a reality. It’s difficult to create a great looking site if you don’t know what you want it to look like.

Find Your Voice:

Over time, good writers discover their voice and their writing tends to develop a certain aesthetic, one that is appealing to their readers. Finding your voice makes your writing feel more alive, more real, more urgent.

We Instead of You:

Use statements of we/our rather than you/your, especially when talking about negative behaviours or tendencies. It reads far less accusatorially.

When to Post:

Q: When is the best day/time to post a blog post?
Answer: That is something you need to find out as you write. Identify the time of the day that gets more engagements (comments, likes, traffic). Remember this is tied to the demographics of your target audience. It’s important to write consistently, but you need not get too bogged down in the details.

Social Media:

Yes, we recommend using Twitter and Facebook to help connect with readers and other bloggers, but don’t get too caught up in it. Focus on the writing first, social media thereafter.

Ignore Negative Criticism and Stupidity:

Sure, we get a lot of negative comments and stupid questions from internet trolls who aren’t really our readers. We call these people seagulls: they fly in, shit on your site, and fly away. But we pay them no mind; our site is not for them. Delete their comment and move on.

Research:

Spend your time researching what you’re writing about. The reason we are able to use so many helpful, relevant links in our articles is because we put in the time to research our topics. That doesn’t mean that we read every blog regularly, but we do put in the time reading them when we’re doing our research.

Keep It Simple:

This is where minimalism can be applied to any blog, irrespective of its genre. No need to place superfluous advertisements or widgets all over your site; stick to the basics and remove anything.

Live Your Life.

You’re blogging about your life (or about certain aspects of your life, at least), so you still need to live your life. There are things that we always put before writing: exercise, health, relationships, experiences, personal growth, and contribution.

Source

@Hieroglyphic,

Why are you copying all my links on your diary? My website might get blacklisted on Nairaland for nothing.