Starting a blog can be a daunting venture.
Beginners bloggers who start off on the right foot pay attention to often overlooked details.
Following the basics at the start makes your journey easier. Doing what works instills confidence both in self and the blogging process.
Most know the basics of creating content and building connections with readers.
But that’s not enough.
Following four fundamentals puts you ahead of most beginner bloggers.
Keep these blogging basics in mind.
1: Publish Content *Consistently*
Some bloggers publish weekly for a year before quitting.
Other bloggers publish daily for a month before quitting.
Few bloggers publish consistently for a decade.
Future pros stick to a posting schedule for years. Challenges arise. Life intervenes. But hungry amateur bloggers appreciate the power of being consistent.
Find your blogging pace. Be consistent. Treat blogging like a casual marathon. Go at your speed.
Beginner bloggers burn out with alarming frequency. Keep your ambition in check. Take your time. Learn the power of doing ordinary things for an extraordinary length of time.
Stop following daily metrics closely. Blogging in 24 hour increments cancels out this tip because impatient bloggers lack consistency. Note daily fluctuations but prioritize monthly and annual metrics as dependable markers.
Publish blog posts consistently. Pump the brakes if required. Being prolific is a long term venture.
2: Link Internally
Google – right down to AI citations – perceives blogs to be spider webs.
Look closely at a spider web. Note the strength of a well-constructed web; insects cannot escape the engineering masterpiece.
Targeted readers cannot escape an intelligent internal linking structure. Internally linking helpful posts is an organic way to be all over your blogging niche.
Rich internal linking alerts the algorithm to a trust blogging resource.
I neglected linking internally for a stretch before owning my error. Dropping relevant links to detailed posts increased search traffic.
Readers appreciate context. Blog posts lay out practical tips yet a strong internal linking structure amplifies content. One click brings readers to another truly helpful resource.
New bloggers tend to send readers offsite. Few build a blog to keep readers onsite. Linking internally is an easy way to glue readers to your blog.
Make your blog sticky. Publish detailed content. Link internally to showcase quality work.
Practical Tips
- link to relevant content
- drop 3-5 internal links per blog post
- update content every 3-6 months to replace dead links
3: Set Up Seamless Navigation
New bloggers make the common error of thinking like bloggers. This error almost always applies to blog design. Beginners do what benefits them not their readers.
Successful bloggers think like readers in user experience terms. Readers want to be able to easily navigate a blog.
I chose my theme primarily based primarily on navigation. I parked my income *needs* at the curb to make everything easy for you. Ironically, happy readers build consistent referral business. Readers who get what they want easily refer your products to like-minded people.
Blogging From Paradise Dot Com offers readers a seamless user experience. From the menu pages, blog posts, sidebar and footer, the theme gracefully migrates visitors to where they want to go.
Ensure that visitors can easily click through to the next posts and previous posts via links below content. Open comments to build a loyal blogging community. Give readers a platform to share thoughts. Benefit from user generated content. Embed a search bar. Offer readers the option to query content.
Practical Tip for Receiving Genuine Feedback
Ask friends or family to click through your blog for ten minutes. Listen closely to their feedback. Loyal readers may look past design flaws. Others with a fresh perspective may spot UX issues.Try to ask someone with less experience online. Older people point out lack of ease better than anything. Moms or dads cannot quite see the tiny font. Older folks also indicate how you may bury premium links instead of making the buy option seamless.
Correct navigation flaws to increase blog traffic. Onsite tweaks boost organic traffic. Make it easy for readers to get where they want to go. Enjoy the traffic boost.
4: Establish Topical Authority
Beginners may want to blog about what’s on their mind.
Do readers want this?
New bloggers alien to the concept of topical authority quickly learn the folly of being a jack of all blogging trades. Masters do one thing to do it well.
Blog for one specific reader. Build your name in this niche. Be a trusted specialist not a confusing generalist. Hit the ground running by doing one thing to do it well.
Advanced Bloggers Err Too
Most blogging specialists deviate even slightly from a single topic over the long haul. Some get away with the mistake but lose topical authority in the process. Resist the urge to niche hop to make more money. Specialists make the most money as go-to resources for the niche.
A single niche blogger needs discipline to master one niche over a 5-10 years. Stay the course.
Cover one topic. Be a trusted specialist. Build topical authority to outrank stiff competition.
Blogging From Paradise beat out a billion dollar market cap company for a treasured niche keyword. The Google algorithm perceives my blog to be a blogging tips resource. I cover the odd travel post yet my blog is pretty much all blogging tips all the time. Google prioritizes niche authority.
Conclusion
The new blogger journey doesn’t need to feel intimidating.
Stick to the blogging basics.
Forgive yourself from deviating from the fundamentals.
Follow a simple strategy consistently.
Establish a strong foundation for a successful blogging career.
Ryan Biddulph is the owner and creator of Blogging From Paradise Dot Com.
https://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/ is great for checking broken links…. it also picks up links from profiles on comments that are no longer valid.
i run this 2x a week, in particular to check for broken out-going links as i link to quite a few reputable sites so the reader can find out more than i am willing to discuss on my blog..
Great add. Thank you Trevor. Tools like this one save significant time.