Little Things to Think About When Blogging: Guest Post from Avery Phillips

When starting a blog, you may think that you’re ready to start writing as soon as you have a topic or theme picked out. Writing regular, original posts is one of the most important aspects of running a blog, but there’s a little more to it than that. Little things that you might not think about can set your blog up for success or make running it a hectic ordeal. Here are a few important aspects of blogging to consider that aren’t writing:

Domain Name

Deciding on a domain name is one of the most crucial choices you will have to make as a blogger. Not only does your domain name define your brand and make your website more credible, it’s essentially your address on the Internet. It’s where people can find your content and get in touch with you.

Unfortunately, domains are not permanent nor are they foolproof. You pay for the right to use your domain for a certain amount of time, but if you forget to renew it, someone else can purchase the right to it. Protecting your domain is vital when running a blog; the last thing you want is for someone to take it from you or gain access to the back-end of your blog. If you keep your domain rights and contact information up-to-date, you’ll be just fine.

Social Media

Whether you love scrolling through Instagram or still don’t have a Facebook account, social media is a key aspect of blogging. You’re putting amazing content up on your blog, right? Well, don’t you want people to read it? To increase the amount of people going to your blog, you have to promote your content on different social media platforms.

In addition, you can keep readers coming back to your blog by including social media buttons on your website. By offering your audience an easy way to see your updates and interact with you online, you can increase the number of new readers and keep the older ones coming back! Be careful, though: each social media platform has guidelines about how to display their logo on your website, as well as any promotional materials you plan to create.

Pictures

Pictures are worth a thousand words, and they can be just as important as what you write for your blog posts. Web writing is much different from other forms of writing; a big wall of text won’t keep readers engaged. Adding pictures can help break up large paragraphs or posts and make your blog more inviting to look at.

You don’t have to be a master photographer or Photoshop expert to include a lot of original images on your blog. You can learn how to create your own images for your blog and social media accounts. If you’d rather find images instead of create them, there are plenty of royalty-free image databases you can search on, such as Pexels or Pixabay.

Monetization

One final thing to consider about your blog is whether or not you want to make money from it, and if so, how much. Mobile technology has made it easy for anyone to start their own business online, and running a blog is no exception. Some blogs can end up being quite lucrative, while others are a nice side job. To make more money, you need to put more time and energy into your blog. So it really depends on how much work you can or want to devote to your blog.

There are a lot of ways you can monetize your blog, such as selling ad space, doing sponsored product reviews or promotions, selling your own product or service, and affiliate link programs. However, certain things will generate more revenue than others. For instance, selling ad space usually isn’t as profitable as joining an affiliate link program. Whatever you choose to do, if anything at all, be sure to follow Google’s best practices on paid or promotional links! When starting your blog, the last thing you want is for Google to penalize you.

Well, there you go! As you can see, or as you will quickly find out after starting your website, there’s a lot more to think about than simply writing good content for your blog. From the technical side of things, like editing and formatting, to making money from your project, you have a lot to think about before publishing your first post!

About the Author:
Avery T. Phillips is a freelance human being with too much to say. She loves nature and examining human interactions with the world. Find her on Twitter; comment or tweet her at @a_taylorian with any questions or suggestions.

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