How to become a blogger
One of the questions I get asked most often concerns how to become a blogger and how to start a successful blog. Given the frequency of these requests, I decided to write a guide completely dedicated to the topic to explain, at a general level, how you can become a blogger and what guidelines you should follow if you want to aspire to create a successful blog.
Assuming that there is no magic formula to become famous on the Internet, there are however some tips to follow that can surely lead you to create a Web portal worthy of note from a technical and aesthetic point of view. The success of a blog also depends on its content and the ability to engage these will have thanks to your writing. On a theoretical level, therefore, everyone can become a blogger, but it is not that easy to achieve national or international fame.
However, I am convinced that, if you follow the advice that I will show you in this guide, you will have the opportunity to clarify your ideas on what you need to do to become a blogger and then you can put them into practice in your corner of the Web to try to stand out from the very numerous competition. Don’t worry if you feel that you are not very familiar with the dynamics of the web; in this tutorial I will provide you with general indications written in a simple and fully understandable way by anyone willing to read them carefully. All clear? Yup? Very well! I wish you a good read then.
Why start a blog
If you have creativity, a passion for writing and the world of the Internet fascinates you, opening a blog could be the right idea for you. Having a blog would in fact allow you to have a very effective technological tool with which you can easily communicate with other people, talking about what are your hobbies or interests, for example. You can therefore create a blog just to talk about your passions or even with the aim of transforming these passions into a real job.
Opening a blog could also be a choice linked to looking for a job in a company with a job related to writing. For example, if your aspiration is to work as a copywriter or ghostwriter, through a blog you could make the general public notice your ability to express yourself through the written word. In this specific case, once you have opened your blog you could include this experience in your curriculum vitae and send it to the company you intend to apply for. In my opinion this is a great way to demonstrate your writing skills in the field.
If, on the other hand, you already have a company and work on your own, do not underestimate the decision to open a blog. Creating a space on the web with articles on the subject of your company’s activities is certainly a very effective marketing tool. Not only will this allow you to make yourself known to your audience, but also to acquire new potential customers thanks to the sharing of the articles you have written on social networks.
Identify the topic to talk about
To become a professional blogger you obviously have to start a blog (there are both advanced tools and platforms for opening a blog that are truly accessible to everyone), but, first of all, you need to write down your strategy for starting a blog.
Precisely for this reason, one of the things I recommend you do to outline a strategy for creating a blog that is effective is to identify the topic you want to talk about.
The passion for writing alone is not enough, so ask yourself some fundamental questions: “What are my hobbies?”, “What are my knowledge?”, “What do I like to find out about?”. A blog needs a very specific main topic: in my opinion it makes no sense to start a blog where you talk about many topics, especially if you do not have full knowledge of the topic. Better a specific and in-depth blog on a single topic that concerns a topic you understand, rather than a blog where many topics are talked about in a superficial way.
In addition, speaking of a topic whose skills you can verify, your word will be considered authoritative and what you write will most deserve the attention of your audience.
I can understand that initially it will not be easy to find the right idea for your blog, so take some time to think about it and write down ideas as they come to you.
Identify your blog goals
Once you have chosen the topic of your blog, you need to establish what are the goals you want to achieve. Do you want to create a blog to talk about your passions and simply do a styling exercise? Or do you want to create a blog as a showcase of your activities and then make your blog a sort of online curriculum vitae? You may not understand the reason for these questions; I’ll explain it to you right away.
Clearly defining your goal is essential for the technical realization of your blog. If just to give you an example, you want to create a blog just for fun, you can focus on easy-to-create blog creation tools. On the contrary, if the blog is to be your future job or a springboard for a job in the company, focus on advanced and professional tools for creating a Webspace.
Defining your goal is also about your potential readers and, consequently, the tone of your articles as well. For example, by writing articles just out of passion you can aspire to a wide audience and write in a simple, immediate, conversational and accessible language. If you want to reach a sought-after audience (like a company, for example), your articles will obviously need to be written in a more professional tone.
In addition, goal setting is important to understand how much time you will need to dedicate to the blog itself. Also in this case I can explain myself better by giving you an example. With an amateur blog you can write articles in your spare time, while if you aspire to success and would like the blog to become your job and be a source of income, you will have to dedicate a lot of time and also be willing to invest money for the realization of a professional webspace.
Choose the publishing platform
Once you have defined in detail what is behind the creation of a blog, and therefore the motivation behind it, the topics to talk about and the objectives you want to achieve with it, you can move on to the evaluation of the more technical part.
In the course of this paragraph I will talk to you in detail about what are the tools for creating a blog. I will recommend advanced and professional tools but also platforms for creating blogs designed to be within everyone’s reach.
Professional tools to create a blog
WordPress
As I explained to you, if you intend to create a blog with the aim of finding a job or turning your passions into a real job, you must keep in mind that the blog must be professional. For this purpose you will have to make use of advanced tools: I suggest you use a CMS and I want to talk to you about WordPress.
WordPress is a free CMS (Content Management System) which forms the basis for creating a blog. WordPress is a noteworthy CMS for its ease of use and for the wide possibilities of customization thanks to plugins and themes.
To start a professional blog created with WordPress CMS it is necessary to have equally professional hosting. Even the WordPress.com site itself offers a paid professional hosting space: prices for the purchase of a webspace with the domain included start from $ 5 per month up to $ 25 per month, with annual billing.
Buying a hosting space and a domain, using WordPress as a CMS, however, requires technical computer skills.
Basic tools for creating a blog
If, on the other hand, your goal is to create an amateur blog with content written to do an exercise in style or, simply, with articles made to share your passions with others, I suggest you use simple and free tools.
Among the best free services (as well as simple to use) for creating amateur blogs, there is the one offered by WordPress.com. The space offered by the CMS website that I named you can also be used completely free of charge.
The limitation of creating a blog for free through WordPress.com or other free hosting sites is the inability to insert advertising content and the limited customization options. To learn more, I recommend that you read my guides on how to use WordPress and how to start a blog on WordPress.
Other tools for creating an amateur blog
Alternatively, to create an amateur blog in just a few clicks, as well as at no cost, I recommend that you consider the option of a proprietary service. These are free blog creation services made available by companies such as Google, Twitter and Yahoo.
Specifically, I’m talking about:
- Tumblr: Yahoo-owned social network and microblogging platform. Simple and extremely immediate, it is a tool suitable for everyone. It does not allow you to insert advertising banners.
- Medium: Twitter-owned blogging platform that is free but is a little more advanced than the previous ones indicated. It does not allow the insertion of advertising banners.
- Blogger: A Google-owned amateur blog creation platform that’s simple to use and completely free. It allows you to earn by integrating Google Adsense advertising, the Google advertising circuit.
