Blogging is becoming more and more common these days, and there's a blog for almost everything, from health and fitness to free software...
Blogging is becoming more and more common these days, and there's a blog for almost everything, from health and fitness to free software, and so on. And no wonder why. Blogging is one of quickest and easiest way to get your views or content online. And before you know it, you're immersed in a whole new world of blogging. You can use this blog for anything, sharing your life with friends and family, earning money, educating others, and so on. Indeed, blogging is one of the best ways you can earn money online. But a lot of people who start blogging don't know where to go, or don't keep a few things into consideration. Such things are all the more important right now for anyone who is thinking of starting a blog. Here, we'll try to list some of them.
Build up the motivation
Well, easy as it may sound, blogging is no walk in the park. This is something every blogger, especially beginners, should be mindful of. Nothing is easy in this world, and nor is blogging. The most important ingredients you'll need for blogging are hard work, will-power, and motivation. Without any of these, your blog will be just another existence online without real meaning, known by only a few people. So build up some motivation and will-power before you start blogging, because if you lose heart midway, all your hard work will be lost.
There's a lot of competition out there
Alright. The next thing you should know is, the world of blogging is jam-packed with people, eager to make money. There is a lot of competition out there. There's a blog about almost anything you can imagine. And they're pretty well ahead of the game, given all these years they've been utilizing to make their blogs better. So to have any hopes of rising to the top, you'll need to create unique, and original content. This is very important, because quality content is the key to any blog.
Can your blog survive?
If you're a newbie to blogging, and want to start off your own blog, then chances are, you are aiming for a small-investment blog. Such blogs only require a small amount of investment to run, and this includes hosting charges, buying templates/themes, and maybe a few premium plugins. This very blog you're reading is a small-investment blog. For low-investment bloggers, it is important to know that there are large corporate blogs out there, funded by, or managed by an entire organization, with dedicated a dedicated marketing team, managerial staff, and paid authors. In short, you don't just have fellow bloggers to worry about. Can your small blog even survive against such large blogs? For that to be possible, you will need to work that much harder on creating unique and original content, something which the readers would enjoy more.
Remember - no plagiarism
This proves to be the deal-breaker for most start-ups. Some people don't realize how serious an issue plagiarism is. They read something they like, and copy paste it on their own blogs, even if just for the sake of having something to share. What they don't realize is, there are lots of penalties involved. Even ad servers like AdSense will ban you for plagiarized content. Also, someone might report copyright violation, which will also land you into trouble.
Be the good guy, not the bad guy
The web is filled with spam nowadays. auto-bots, spam links, plagiarism, article spinning, you name it. Before starting your blog, you need to make up your mind whether to be a good guy or a bad guy. If you want to be a good guy, you will have to let go of ever spam or bad practice. Avoid getting spam links, or setting up robots to spam other sites with comments. And for the bad guys out there, Google and other engines are out there to get them by introducing penalties and algorithmic updates. So if they are successful once, that doesn't mean they'll always be successful. Google will eventually take down such sites.
SEO penalties - be prepared
In the past few years, Google has been implementing a lot of changes. So what might have worked a couple of years ago might not work out now. As I just mentioned, it has been trying to cut down on spam, and has introduced many updates and penalties. Shady, over-optimized, black-hat SEO sites have been penalized, and good SEO practices are promoted. So learn and implement them on your blog to stay on the safe side. Here's something that might help;
- 20 Hot SEO tactics every blogger should know about.
- 10 Great SEO tips for start-ups in under 10 minutes
Watching out for updates
Google rolls out algorithmic updates every year now. In the last two years, it released the Panda and the Penguin algorithms. These algorithms hit a lot of websites, and from the looks of it, will continue to do so unless you do something about. Therefore, as a beginner, you should look out for such updates, and learn to adapt to them. Here is how you can adapt to the panda and penguin algorithms;
- Top 10 SEO strategies to protect your blog against Panda
- How to recover from the Google Penguin update penalty?
Go social
Google is now putting more and more emphasis on going social, especially on Google+. The +1 and share buttons have already appeared in search results quite some time ago. And Google is now integrating everything together, so if you don;t have a Google+ profile, you might as well make one now.
Work on your AuthorRank
We did a detailed series on AuthorRank. But I will mention it here nonetheless. Just like PageRank ranks webpages, AuthorRank will rank authors. Google+ profiles are essential for this. This way, spam will be reduced, and people who write quality content will rise to the top. It won't matter if they are beginners or veterans. And also, their AuthorRank will impact their PageRank. So start working on your AuthorRank, and create quality content. We have talked all about this in our series, which you can access from the following link.
Did you find this post useful? Do let us know what you think in the comments below. Also, feel free to ask questions here. Peace :)
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