So you’ve just started a blog and are looking for advice on what to do and what not to do. Well, I can’t sit here and say I have years of experience, but I can sit here and tell you exactly what I do and this might give you some tips.
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DO create good looking graphics for your posts
Making your blog stand out is crucial. To do this, you’ll want to make it look visually appealing. One way to guarantee this is to use a piece of software that gives you loads of visual ideas. I would HIGHLY recommend Canva.
Canva offers a bunch of great looking templates at every stage of your design process. They also have all the sizing presets you could think of – including one for blog banners! Sign up here for a 30-day Free Trial.
DON’T forget your SEO
I’d highly recommend installing Yoast SEO as a plugin. This gives you a whole new layer of things to think about when writing your content. If you don’t get your SEO right, you won’t ever appear on the Google homepage. It’s all about including external links, internal links, inserting your keyword and making sure it appears plenty of times within your piece.
DO share your articles across social media
I would highly recommend choosing one or two social media platforms like Facebook or Pinterest and have these as the main places you share your content. Set up a Facebook page and encourage your friends to follow it. Share content from it into other groups and make sure you post into it regularly.
Pinterest is huge for bloggers. It has increased to over 500 million users during the pandemic as people took up more hobbies, DIY and home businesses. Get in there, follow me and dusty sharing your content.
I’d also recommend setting up an Instagram account. #Bookstagram is a huge thing on there and if you can go and follow a load of these accounts, they’ll happily follow you back and promote your Instagram to their stories and such. Also, message people asking if they’ll have a look at your blog and let you know where you can improve – this not only gets you views but gets you a genuinely engaged audience whose opinions feel valued).
DO read those articles back
You don’t want one of the few comments you get on your blog to be the fact you’ve misspelt a wild or misplaced a, comma. Also, definitely go back through your content and read it out loud and see if it sounds friendly or not. If it doesn’t, try and rephrase some of the wording to include “you” or “let’s” as these sort of words make people feel included and less like they’re following passive instructions.
DON’T use other people’s blog content without their permission
If you’re copying an image or stealing content from another website or blog, you’re going to be in for a world of trouble when it is found out. Also, use websites like pexels.com and pixabay.com to grab your free images. These allow you to use the images for free as long as you’re not selling them or using them to sell. Canva offers up some great free photos within its platform and some even better ones with the Pro plan.
DO use a catchy title
Your title is the reason people will come to your blog. If it’s dull then people won’t bother. Some suggestions are to use simple but punchy headlines, for example, instead of “Some important things to remember when writing articles for your blog” try “DOs and DON’Ts when Article Writing”. This way people will know they’re going to get an easier-to-digest piece of information.
Listicles are also highly popular. If you can make your article into a numbered list and come up with as many ideas as you can to make that number as large as you can, this is likely to bring in the views too. My most popular article to date is 50 Things to Know when Starting (and running) your blog. This is likely because it’s informative and has a numerical title.
DO subscribe to my newsletter for more blog tips like this
Just kidding – you don’t have to. But do consider a newsletter for your own blog. That and getting them to put your blog into their RSS reader of choice is the only way you can get in front of their eyes as often as you want.
I hope these Dos and Don’ts when writing a blog article have helped give you some ideas when next writing yours. If you’ve got some great ideas – leave a comment below or let me know on one of my social channels below.
Looking for more bookish tips? Read my article on 8 Ways to get out of your reading slump or 5 Ways to save money as a book lover.
Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?