Being a new blogger is difficult and hard. You often lose confidence because you know that there are millions of bloggers out there who are professional and seems like a blogging veteran. You asked, “How would I compete with these guys?”. Fear not, because…
I am presenting you, 8 TIPS on HOW YOU CAN BLOG LIKE A PRO. Or to make your blog at least look like a pro. And you can do this by : Planning, Creating a Killer Title, Create a Valuable or Quality Content, Become an Authority, Be Confident and Honest, Work Hard… but Smartly, Use relevant Images on Every Blog Post, Wrap your post with a Bang!
Let’s start!
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Here are 8 Tips on How To Blog Like A Pro :
#1 Planning
Planning your blog is as important as having a “House Plan” before you actually build your house. It helps you determine what materials you’ll need to achieve your “ideal” house that will suit all your needs, right?
With blogging, planning, plays the great part. Because it serves as the foundation of your entire blog. Planning occurs not only when you plan out your blog post but from the very beginning like when you are…
- Brainstorming your niche.
What will be your blog about? What problem will your blog give solutions to? You can’t just go out there and blog without knowing what you’ll be focusing to. You have to know to whom your blog is for … your target audience.
- Planning your blog design.
Your blog represents you. Your blog design will serve as your “outfit” in the world of blogging. It will be your way on how you would like others to see you. I myself, get attracted to a pretty, neat and organized blog design. Who doesn’t?
- Planning your writing method or the “voice tone” of your blog.
This will be your way on how you are going to communicate with your readers. Regardless with your niche, or topic of your blog, I do believe that the best tone to use is as if you are actually talking to a friend who is actually sitting in front of you. Like the way I’m talking to you right now.
- Planning your content.
This is the most important thing of all. As what Bill Gates said, “Content is King.” And it will always be.
Planning your content ahead of time will help you create good quality posts on a normal basis that will result to consistency. In addition, it will help you not to lose ideas on what to write, which is— one of the struggles of being a blogger, experienced or not.
This can be done by using or implementing a Content Calendar. You can use apps like Trello or CoSchedule for example or if you want for free, you can just use Google Sheet instead. If you’re like me, who’s an old school, I prefer to write my plan using a pen and a paper.
And also when writing your content, it is recommended to write at least 600 words for starters. But longer blog posts has a high chance to rank on search engines.
#2 Create a Killer Title
Have you heard of the 30 seconds rule?
As a blogger, you have the first 3 seconds to make an impression to your readers and if they stay, you have the remaining 27 seconds to give them what they came to your site for.
That’s the only time frame you have to attract and convince your visitors to stay and read your post you made for them.
So, if you want to catch your readers’ attention and glue them to your post, make sure you have a strong title that will make them click it. In order to create a catchy title, it should be something that will bring out curiosity to everybody who sees it.
Having a “Killer Title” that is SEO friendly is very crucial as well. You wouldn’t want your blog post to appear on the 10th page of the search engine would you?
The good title should be catchy with at least 60 characters including your keywords. And writing your meta description, is as important at writing your title.
So it is recommended to keep your post’s META description characters to 156 to make sure it will fit to search engines. Your description should contain the important keywords, provides good call-to-action. Your description should be precise but delivers a clear picture that will let your readers know what to expect from your post.
#3 Create Valuable Content
Well if you have been reading this post from the top, you already know that I have mentioned that “Content is King” and will always be. As a blogger you have a mission on creating a value on your posts and offer help to your readers as much as possible. A quality content will lead to engagement between you and your readers. If they find it interesting and engaging they will leave comments and might share your post to their friends or families.
The more engagement or conversation you get, the more possibility of high ranking in search engines and will also prove that your content is a “share-worthy”.
You need to read this to create a valuable content :
What is Jaaxy Keyword Research Tool?
Aside from content that offers value, you have to put attention on how you write your post as well. Aside from your blog post should be at least 600 words, it is also important to make your content readable for your audience.
What I meant by readable, make your sure that your blog post is divided into chunks of paragraphs.
Like these 2 for example :
A B
B is easier to read, right?
#4 Become An Authority
Regardless of your knowledge of the subject or how great your ideas are, it doesn’t matter unless you have established yourself as an Authority and your blog as an Authoritative blog.
But how exactly are you going to achieve that?
This is the part where you leverage the power of social media and establish yourself as an authority on your chosen niche. The first step to this, is to get your social media profiles updated, make sure that it is niche related and that will reflect your mission statement and you as a person. Your readers would like to know if they are actually reading / following a real person whom they can relate with.
Leveraging social media will help you build trust with your followers. And keep in mind that, Instagram has highly engaged audience than any other social network.
Use the same profile image in every social media platform that you use whether its Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Quora etc and make sure to get a Gravatar too. So people will easily remember you. Hence, improving your social media presence.
We all read other people’s blog, right? If you do, posting comment and sharing your opinion/s on other’s work will help you to be an authority in your niche. Other people may find your opinion not as valuable as an expert but… it is… for your followers.
#5 Confidence & Honesty
First and foremost, nobody listen to a non confident person. If you are sharing your ideas without confidence no one is going to believe you.
Your readers will not actually see you physically, so in the world of blogging, it is your words of choosing, how you write and express your ideas that will reflect your confidence.
And also you should be confident and ready to literally spread your face across the internet. By adding an author box on the sidebar so your readers will get a chance to know you. Be sure to add few personal details on your “about me page” that will allow your audience to relate to you.
This is the best way to let the people know who is behind the awesome blog!
In addition to being confident, it is also important to be honest with your audience. This might be confusing sometimes because, there are people believe in “Fake It Till You Make It” strategy. Although I can’t confirm it, but my guts tell me that some influencers out there is practicing this aphorism and apparently they get away with it and it works for them.
And if that happens– it worked for you, then, good for you. But it would still be better to be honest always. Remember that your readers can tell whether you “actually” know what you are talking about. It is better not to pretend that you know something. Be humble and honest to admit to your audience/readers that you are learning “with them”.
If someone pointed out your mistake, acknowledge it.
Here’s a post you might be interested in :
What is a Niche Website? – a Beginner Friendly Explanation
#6 Work Hard … but Smartly
I know you all heard it.
“Work smarter, not harder.”
– Carl Barks
Original quote form Carl Barks and now serves as the new mantra or bloggers and those of online business owners.
To work smart means you move forward and be able to stay maybe not on top, but at least being able to grow your blog and catch up with millions of bloggers. And not be left behind by the crowd that is moving forward.
In order for you to work smart, you should start by :
- choosing the right blogging tools
- social media sharing tools
- practice time management.
I was browsing Google yesterday and came accross Hubspot.com. They made an article on How to Work Smart, Not Hard. They pointed some things out on how you’ll be able to achieve it. You can read it from here —-> “How to Work Smart, Not Hard”
Being able to maintain a good balance between your social, business and personal life will help you become even more productive.
Check my other posts too :
- How to Write Your First Blog Post: Beginners’ Guide
- Best 7 Tips on How to Pick a Domain Name
- 200+ Blog Post Ideas for New Bloggers to Skyrocket Consistency
- 10 Ways to Prepare Your Blog for the New Year
- What You Should Know about WEALTHY AFFILIATE : An Honest Review 2021
#7 A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
When talking to someone face to face, you tend to use gestures, body languages or even facial expressions to convey your message to the other person.
But, writing a blog post is different. People reading blogs are lazy and seems that they always rush to get to the point. They don’t want to struggle to read. What they want, is to understand your content quickly and easily determine whether your post will be helpful for them or not. Sounds sucks but it’s true.
As a matter of fact, many people just scan blog posts rather than reading it word per word.
That’s where the use of relevant images become handy. Images will help your reader understand your message more. Because it supports your words that helps you tell your story.
Apart from it, the habit of integrating images to your blog will help you create a more visually appealing and engaging content. Plus, you can use those images to create an SEO friendly content.
Neil Patel has a blog post about the importance of using images to you blog post.
#8 Wrapping It Up With A Bang!
Ending your post properly is as important as starting your blog post.
The ending paragraph plays a huge role on any articles or blog post. Why? because this is the part where you summarize your post. Giving all the important details and concludes what the whole article is all about. This is needed and useful for skimmers who dropped by to your site.
Keep in mind that a “noisy” blog attracts more readers and helps building your site’s credibility.
So make sure that every time you end your post, always take the opportunity to get your audience/readers involve by asking them and providing a good call to action.
Such as, “Do you have any other tips to share?” or “What do you think of this post?” it can be something like “Is there any points or information that I missed?”..
These questions are good examples of a good call to action. These will lead to your readers to share their ideas, opinions or experience to the issue. And being the author, you should take part as well by replying to each and every one of them. As a result, an increase on comment rate.
8 Tips to Blogging Like A Pro
#1 Planning
#2 Create an SEO Friendly Killer Title
#3 Create a Valuable Content
#4 Become An Authority
#5 Confidence and Honesty
#6 Work Hard But… Smartly!
#7 A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
#8 Wrapping It Up With A Bang!
Your Thoughts?
I believe I have said everything that I need to say. But before anything else, I would like to point out the takeaways on this post.
With that being said, for me Creating a Valuable Content that will help your readers is the most important of all. And to be consistent on creating post will help your site and your brand in establishing authority.
Remember : Quality over Quanity.
So, how about you? Do you have some tips to share?
Please feel free to add it in the comments section below. I would love to hear it and I’d be happy to get back to you.
Lastly, if you find this post helpful, please don’t forget to share.
See you on my next post!
CHECK OUT THESE RELATED POSTS
Hi there! This is Minah, the blogger behind of Niches and Earnings | Start A Blog.
I created this website to be a place where you can get information on how you can start your blog. Also tips on blogging, how to use social media for your blog and make money in the cofort of your home.
Let’s connect on social media too!
I really was scared getting my face out there the first time I opened my blog but I was advised that it would build more credibility on your brand as people are actually going to know the face behind the computer. I was able to do just that and I am proud I was able to take that step.
Working hard and working smart are two different things and we should always be able to find balance in both so as was said in the post can lead us to be more productive.
Hey Manuel,
Same here, I have no guts on putting my face forward. But since I decided to blog,
and showing my face is part of it, I just did it.
And I’m glad that you have done it too! It’s a huge step!
Mina
I absolutely love this insightful article because it is full of great information. This is fascinating and intriguing to meYou did an excellent job of providing education and resources; The article was well written and easy to understand.
I have always been looking for tips to becoming a great blogger and here is what i have found on your blog. Thanks for this eye opener.
Awesome article, I learned some great tips. That 30 second rule is so interesting, I will keep that in mind. I hadn’t realised about the meta description either. I’ll have to keep practising. Thanks for sharing, this was helpful.
Hi CJ,
Thanks for dropping by.
And I’m happy that you find value in my article.
Now that you know about the 30 second rule–
then it’s time to keep in mind every time you write a post.
For I’m doing the same thing. ?
Wishing you success!
Mina
Awesome Information
This is an enlightening piece of information.I really love the way you outlined the review on the tips on how to become a pro in blogging. The points are well analysed and very comprehensive enough.I must say this is an eye opener. I have added to my knowledge and i must thak you for sharing this with us.This is the most extensive article i have ever read.
Thanks Michael and I’m glad that you find this article helpful.
Wishing you success!
Mina
Hi Mina,
So many great ideas in this post. I completely agree with the 30 second rule! If you don’t get people interested quickly then they are not going to stick with it. With that being said, blogging is a skill and it does take lots of practice to get it right. At least it did for me! Always important to get feedback from friends and peers to see what is working and come up with new ideas.
Hi Carolyn,
Glad that you like my post.
And yeah the 30 second rule is crucial.
I could agree more to what you said that blogging is skill and takes a lot of
practice to get right. And asking your friends for feedback will be a great help.
Thanks again and wishing you success!
Mina
What an informative article it is! I am a blog writer but my article was not ranked. After reading this post I have confirmed that what was my fault. It is so analytical post and I think it will be very helpful for me. your 8 tips are killer tips. I will bookmark your post and will read again and again for getting the best result. Thanks for the great post.
Hi Mina – As a newbie myself I think your post is very helpful. You state the path to a successful blog in your 8 Key steps.
Most importantly the planning step because without it you will be lost. I never heard the 3 – 27 – 30-second approach before and it makes so much sense. I will remember and use this and it’s so easy to remember 2-27-30 and you’re off to a great start.
Thank You – Mike
Hi Mike,
Glad that you find my post useful.
Yep, you’re right. The 8 Steps is very important to follow. Especially the planning part.
Because I, myself, is having difficulties producing articles before. But when you have a
plan, everything will easy.
But still, consistency plays an important role.
Thanks for dropping by.
Mina
Hi, Mina, excellent outline on how to plan and blog. I was especially intrigued by the 30-seconds’ rule, something I never thought about until now. This will allow me to change the structure of my own blog posts in future articles. Instead of a build up, I’m definitely providing a hint in those first 30 seconds that will give my readers what they came for.
Hi Todd,
Nice to see you visiting again.
And glad that I was able to offer you just even a tiny help.
And yes indeed the 30 second rule is really crucial to get the attention of your (our) readers.
And I realize that it definitely true, because I observed that I myself behaves that way when reading posts.
So, the 30 second rule makes sense.
Anyway, thanks again and wishing you success.
Mina
Hi Mina,
Great post, thanks for sharing.
I have been Blogging for about a month so far, so your 8 tips will definitely help me as I get more experienced with Blogging.
I really want to become an authority in my niche and hopefully the more I do, the more I become that authority.
Thanks again for sharing,
Tom
Hi Tom,
Thanks for dropping by.
Glad that you find my article helpful.
Mina
Great article. It certainly reminds me of a few things that need to do in order to get comfortable and effective with my blogging.
On the topic of being an authority, I believe that in order to be an effective authority we need to post consistent information to remain relevant.
Thank you!
You are truly right Rachael, in order to be an authority, we need to be consistent
on posting information around our chosen niche/topic.
Thanks for dropping by.
Hi Minah, I love to blog but I was almost convinced I was doing it wrong while reading your post. I love the way you put the information out there and really get to the point in letting readers know what they need to do to have a successful blog. You have a lot of great information here, I feel like I need to put some of this confidence in my work. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Jen,
Glad that you hind this post helpful.
Well, I tried to be simple in choosing words and
get to the point.
I always put myself to my audience’s shoes, besides
I myself is an audience too, right?
Thanks and wishing you success!
Mina
Hi Minah,
Some good tips there, I am new to blogging myself and will keep these in mind to improve my readability factor.
I initially thought that 60 characters MINIMUM for a title was a lot, but then on reflection, it isn’t at all!
All th best
Hi Craig,
Yes, I compiled these tips that I think will be helpful
for me and to other bloggers too.
The readability of each article is very important.
Nobody wants to read a post and feel dizzy afterwards, right?
I definitely agree when you said that 60 characters isn’t a lot.
So, I spent typing and deleting titles all the time at first.
Wishing you the best as well.
Mina
Hi Mina,
Great post. There are a lot of useful tips here and I’d like to apply them to my website.
Thank you!
Hi Minah,
Thank you for writing this quality content and important step by step guideline for new bloggers. I have got a great inspiration of writing a blog. I was little bit confused but now I understood that I need a great patience and little bit hard work to establish a blog sites. I have already started learning SEO and blog writing concept. I believe I will be successful for establishing my blog sites. I am going to save your sites in my bookmark section for further reading of your other articles.
Great tips Mina! I wish I had did a little more research before starting my first blog. But I am armed now for my next venture. I appreciate all the great tips! Thanks!
Hi Leahrae,
Thanks.
Good to know that you are armed for your next venture!
Wish you success!
Wow great and informative article Minah. I have recently started blogging myself. I so far I wrote six blogs and I think I found your article on time, so I can use your valuable information for my next blogs. I think that connection with reader is very important too. And your tips with planing and how you should wrap it up are just great and that’s where I need to improve. But I guess you just have to do it and learn from your mistakes to become really good at something! Thank you for sharing your knowladge with us!
Hey Marius,
Thanks for spending your time reading my article. And I’m glad that
you found it helpful.
Yes, building a relationship with reader is extremely important because that’s way
of building trust with them. I couldn’t agree more when you said that you actually have to do it
and learn from your mistakes.
Anyway, as they said, “Practice makes perfect.”
Hey Mina,
This is an excellent article, for any newbie who is planning to blog, these 8 steps / tips are literally the framework he / she needs to follow to build a blog. There is probably one more thing which i would like to add in this list i.e. be patient with your efforts, as a newbie it can be daunting task to post regularly. Thanks for sharing this lovely post and i really like your lucid style of writing.
Hi Satish,
Thanks for your time. And you’re right, this post is intended to help those who are just starting out.
Patience… umm good one! Actually true! You got to have a lot of patience, coz blogging is not an easy
thing to do. That’s one of the reason why some of the newbies quit the race.
Thanks again and wishing you success!
I think you hit the nail on the head. How you go about developing your content sounds perfect to me. I am sure there are other ways to go about it, but what you have mentioned above sounds very logical. Great job.
Hey Isaac,
Thanks for your comment.
Well, like what Bill Gates said— “Content is King.”
And I couldn’t agree more to that. Besides it is the content of your blog
that your audience came for, right?
Wishing you success!
Mina
This is an excellent outline of the planning to write a blog like a pro. I really learned a lot on the important step to follow especially in the planning part on how to become as a pro on blogging. Those are useful information for me for I am new in this field.
Thank you so much for sharing this which I can apply in my writing.
Best,
Lyn
Hi Lyn,
Thanks for spending some of your time reading my article.
And glad that found value in it.
Wishing you success!
Mina
Hi Minah,
Those are some truly valuable advice you give here.
I think the most important thing is to be consistent and to always be able to adapt.
I also try to plan my content and I find it very helpful.
Hi Asen,
I’m glad that you liked my post.
You’re right, “Consistency is the Key!”
And to be able to adapt is another one too. Because as we all know
blogging is evolving as time passes.
That’s a good one, Asen! Thanks!
Hi. Your tips are good. I definitely need to invest more time in the planning of my blogs. I can see how this foundation is necessary to build a good and successful blog, but have been too lazy to do it in the past. The 30-second rule is interesting and so important. I never realized it before, but will now make an extra effort to capture the reader’s full attention within that first paragraph.
many thanks for sharing these tips.
Hi andrew! Thanks for dropping by and glad that you find my post helpul.
I wasn’t aware o the 30-second rule either until I attended a free webinar. Then I started to observe myself, and find out that it’s actually true.
Although we write our own blogs, we are readers as well, right?
So we really have to put ourselveson our reader’s shoes sometimes.
Hey Minah, this is a great article. Thanks for the tip in picking a niche.
Many people focus on SEO keywords in their content and in their meta description tags but not in their titles.
I appreciate you pointing that out.
Love the website and I intend to check back!
Good job on the all of your information you shared. It is very informative and I learned a ton from this blog and blogging like a pro. So really, just wanted to say thank you so much!
Glad you find this post helpful, Sariah.
Thanks for visiting.
Oh, you seem like such a better writer than I am. I’m terrible at getting my content done. None-the-less I do it! Thanks for the motivation to get back to writing some more.
I will be putting these tips to the test shortly. Wish me luck! (:
Thanks Doc!
Practice makes perfect. Even though we are terrible in doing things, writing for example– If you keep on doing it, accept correction and learn from mistakes, we’ll find that there’s always room for improvement.
Glad you find this article helpful.
Hi Mina, well structured post. I’m new to blogging, so I’m learning about SEO, Keywords, length of the ideal blog and so on … I also appreciated your reflection on planning and time management which I am personally struggling with.
Thanks for your valuable tips and info.
Marvelous explanation, Mina, very helpful tips. I always marvel at the different angles one can have to approach blogging and writing. And always learn of course. So thank you for this 🙂
Hi Mina,
These are excellent tips for blogging. Images are indeed very important and they must relate to the content. Paragraphs as well, no one wants to read a long, endless paragraph, that is very true.
It is kind of disappointing that most readers just skim throough your article which you worked so hard on, but that’s understandable, there is so much information available on the internet … you can’t read everything, right? 😉
Thank you for these great tips!
Hi Christine,
Everything you said is true. It is sometimes disappointing that your readers won’t spend that much
time reading your article that you worked too hard.
But, unfortunately we are all the same, lol! I also skim the whole thing, specially if I’m quite
familiar with the topic.
That’s why images and dividing your posts in chuncks of paragraps is important.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Stay safe.
Mina