Solutions that can help an amateur blogger sail through
Transitioning from an occasional writer, after continuous persuasion from friends, to start an active blog, to a full-fledged paid blogger is not an easy task. Creating a WordPress account and beautifying it is something anyone can do, but what makes you stand out is quality content and clarity in your thought. When one decides to use blogging to efficaciously present their views on wide-ranging topics - be it from personal thoughts to niche products, they need to understand the environment they are entering. As in the eventuality that their voice is heard and adhered to, they must be aware of the accountability and responsibility that entails.
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We bring you five plausible solutions to problems an amateur blogger faces.
Need for foresight, pursuing a longer trail
Ever since the conception of online blogging, in 1997, it has become an intrinsic part of many of our rudimentary aspects - politics, spirituality, business, marketing, cooking etc. With an estimated five million blog posts each day, a new blogger has a much, much bigger hill to climb. Like with everything that is life, there is a learning curve associated with a blog as well. Often, due to abject laziness, the curve of this trajectory pretty much goes off on a tangent. In the initial phase, focusing on your content and developing a loyal readership is essential. Don't be misguided by echo chambers and have a definitive and well-researched discourse in terms of your content.
Keep a schedule for posting new content
A problem that many bloggers face in the first place is dealing with inconsistency with regards to publishing content. Non-existence of a fixed time frame and schedule along with random mismatched posts, is a prima facie reason to not gain enough traction. What solves such a problem is the concept of content marketing, which many startups strive to achieve with their product blogs. Planning your posts beforehand and deciding the topics to be covered over a pre-decided time span is essential. Putting up an editorial calendar that marks all your published and scheduled posts, while working simultaneously in maintaining a log of elements related to your marketing strategy, can help a lot.
Continuously engage readers
What distinguishes one blog from the other, is the engagement along with the polished presentation, that the bloggers have with their readership. Having seen trends on Google Analytics, engagement also becomes essential when it comes to ranking sites and results display on their optimized search engines. Despite your brilliant and well-articulated ideas, a lack of traction due to neglect on engagement will mean that everything was laid to waste.
Working knowledge of SEO and plugins
The placement of your blog on the Google search result, will directly result in the viewership and the monetary benefits that you gain. Obtaining organic search traffic is something a lot of bloggers struggle with. For your reference, organic search results are listings that appear because of their relevance to the search terms. Picking the right keywords optimizes your post to a great extent. Also, add-on plugins help customize your site’s functions.
Lack of modalities offered to readership:
Often, a blog post which is text-heavy looks unattractive to read and becomes unsuccessful in gaining the interest of readers. Hence, offering your words in form of text, audio and video makes a good impression and gains interest. Maybe, an interesting video, informative podcast, informatics and visuals about the topic will give you an edge to engage with the reader.