It is not what you think. I mean blogging is nothing like you have ever been told.


You say; I want to start a blog.

Your friend says; Just get a website and start writing. I am sorry to inform you, that is the fastest way to fail if you are considering going into blogging.

Let me say this again. Everything you do online start with a strategy. Brands fail on social media because they lack strategy, businesses fail in marketing because they lack a strategic marketing plan. Bloggers fail because they lack strategy and because nobody ever told them that blogging is a skill that has to be learned.


Read that line again. Your strategy must include SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If anybody needs to understand SEO, bloggers should. A few years ago I started blogging about WordPress. I didn't know as much as I do now about SEO but I found out a long time after that one of my articles was actually pulling some weight on SEO.

It was doing so well I was getting traffic from the US and other countries. It was quite impressive to see that happen, but I didn't have a strategy in place to harvest the raw traffic I was getting so they were passing free after enjoying my content. I have since taken the blog down and I almost regret doing so now.

I was looking at the article just before I took it down and I realized why it did so well. It was a long, very detailed tutorial with lots of images that I didn't really care to tag. The article was about how to set up a website.

What else did I do that made that article rank well on a search engine?

I optimized my title with the keywords I thought would make sense on a search engine. (Note that I did not research my keywords, I simply guessed them because, at the time, I didn't know there was a thing called keyword research.)

I just guess-used the keywords according to some suggestions I got from a plugin I was using on my site at the time, Yoast SEO. That plugin was really helpful. I also used subheading to map out my article clearly so that the search engine will understand and read my article as an authentic article.

Then I linked it back to some other related articles I had on the website. You might not get all I have said so I will try to summarize.

1. I chose a niche; WordPress
2. I created a strategy; how many times to post per week, topic to write about, etc.
3. I wrote a long-form (highly detailed) article.
4. I used keywords on titles and used subtitles.
5. I used images, lots of them.
6. I published.
7. I updated the article after some time to keep it fresh.

If and when I return to blogging, I won't do any of these differently instead, I will improve on everything else; do detailed keyword research, and spend more time updating my published articles than I will spend creating new ones.

SamOnaivi:
It is not what you think. I mean blogging is nothing like you have ever been told.


You say; I want to start a blog.

Your friend says; Just get a website and start writing. I am sorry to inform you, that is the fastest way to fail if you are considering going into blogging.

Let me say this again. Everything you do online start with a strategy. Brands fail on social media because they lack strategy, businesses fail in marketing because they lack a strategic marketing plan. Bloggers fail because they lack strategy and because nobody ever told them that blogging is a skill that has to be learned.


Read that line again. Your strategy must include SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If anybody needs to understand SEO, bloggers should. A few years ago I started blogging about WordPress. I didn't know as much as I do now about SEO but I found out a long time after that one of my articles was actually pulling some weight on SEO.

It was doing so well I was getting traffic from the US and other countries. It was quite impressive to see that happen, but I didn't have a strategy in place to harvest the raw traffic I was getting so they were passing free after enjoying my content. I have since taken the blog down and I almost regret doing so now.

I was looking at the article just before I took it down and I realized why it did so well. It was a long, very detailed tutorial with lots of images that I didn't really care to tag. The article was about how to set up a website.

What else did I do that made that article rank well on a search engine?

I optimized my title with the keywords I thought would make sense on a search engine. (Note that I did not research my keywords, I simply guessed them because, at the time, I didn't know there was a thing called keyword research.)

I just guess-used the keywords according to some suggestions I got from a plugin I was using on my site at the time, Yoast SEO. That plugin was really helpful. I also used subheading to map out my article clearly so that the search engine will understand and read my article as an authentic article.

Then I linked it back to some other related articles I had on the website. You might not get all I have said so I will try to summarize.

1. I chose a niche; WordPress
2. I created a strategy; how many times to post per week, topic to write about, etc.
3. I wrote a long-form (highly detailed) article.
4. I used keywords on titles and used subtitles.
5. I used images, lots of them.
6. I published.
7. I updated the article after some time to keep it fresh.

If and when I return to blogging, I won't do any of these differently instead, I will improve on everything else; do detailed keyword research, and spend more time updating my published articles than I will spend creating new ones.

Wonderful. So before you monetize your blog it means every traffic you gained before monetizing it have gone to the wine and won't be reaped

Also, is the process of monetizing strenuous?