How To Start A Blog And Does Your Business Need One?

So you or your business has decided to create a blog. Good decision and quite frankly, a decision that you should probably have taken for some time now. But as they say, better late than never, right?

Regardless of the size of your business and the product or service you are selling, having a blog is quite an important step to help you or your business stand out, create brand awareness or simply get your voice heard. Even if you are just into putting your word out there, or eventually thinking of creating a blog and then monetizing it, having one is crucial and taking the right steps can make or break your blogs success.

In this article, I will walk you through some of the most important aspects and benefits or creating a blog. It really does not matter whether you already have a website or not, but obviously and depending on what you are going to blog about, having a website can be of equal or greater importance to have one.

Why Create A Blog?

Probably the most obvious of all questions. Having a blog helps you communicate to your intended audience. It is where you can say anything and whatever you want, provide something that creates value to your readers and/or potential customers. From your blog, you can echo the content you are creating and spread it out to social channels, thus bringing in traffic to your site. It is also a way to interact with people by enabling reader comments on your blog. You’ll have a solid medium through which to gauge your audience’s opinions and hear their feedback on what you post about. It is also a great way to feature a product, explain a service and/or express an opinion. Bottom line, a blog can help you increase your exposure.

As you can see, there are several reasons why one should create a blog. There are likely a lot more reasons that can be mentioned here to have one, but in the end the idea is that a blog can do wonders for you whether you are a business owner, an avid traveller wanting to share your adventures, a problogger in the making, etc.

So that we know a bit more about the why, let’s dive in the how to make this happen.

The Crucial Steps Of Creating A Blog

The Topic Of Your Blog

This is where things can get bumpy. Obviously, if you already have a website or have a established business, the topic you should choose is quite easier to determine. Say you have a Golf store and wish to create a blog, the topic of your choice should be related to Golf, makes sense?

Now, in the event that you are not involved directly on a type of business and still wondering what to blog about, here’s some tips. First and foremost, remember that you will produce content based on the topic you choose, so choose wisely. Then if you have something that you consider yourself an expert on, something that you are passionate about, that would definitely be a great way to start on going about choosing your topic.

Figure out the topic you will be talking about and move to the next step.

Setting Up your Blog

This is the step were you will define the design of your blog, the platform you will use, and the level of technical knowledge you will need to maintain your blog.

In the past, setting up a blog was not as easy as it is now. Before, the level of technical knowledge you need was quite a lot to a point that you needed additional help. Fortunately the advancements of the technology in blog or site creation has today come to a point that setting up a blog is a lot easier and actually even fun to do. You no longer have to be an expert in web design, know coding and all that tech mambo jambo.

If you don’t have an idea where to start, there is an academy that will walk you through every aspect of blog creation to blog promotion. With Wix website builder you can easily learn how to start a blog from scratch and go all the way to providing you with a platform to create your blog. Once you understand in more depth the ins and outs of blog creation, benefits, etc., you can have the option to use their platform to start your own blog.

You may be asking why Wix? Obviously, and as an alternative, you can use other CMS (Content Management Systems) platforms, choose a hosting provider, install and configure templates, etc. Problem is that you need a bit of technical knowledge for things to get rolling. One of the advantages I see in using Wix’s platform is that it makes the complication about website creation a thing of the past. With Wix, you can create and build awesome blogs and websites simply by using their WYSIWYG true drag & drop website builder. Essentially you can insert your stuff basically anywhere on the website.

As you can see, I kinda think that the first option is a tad less complicated. Ultimately it is your choice, so do your research and follow through the best option that makes you more comfortable.

Content Creation

Ah, the holy grail of blogging. Content is king, blah, blah… Isn’t this obvious? Content should be, unique, top quality, engaging, adds value, and hopefully solves a problem. That’s it. Nothing really more to say here. Create great content and wow your audience. If you have a product or service, create how to type articles, explain advantages and disadvantages, etc.. If you are promoting a product or service, make comparisons, highlight pros and cons, dos and do nots, etc. Your conetnt can be in the form of text, video, slide presenation, podcasts, etc.

I hope you understand that creating content is a crucial and important part of the blogging process. I can say a lot of things about this topic, but aside from going here, you can get more information out there.

Blog Promotion

OK, what’s the point of having a nice looking blog, plenty of great content if no one knows about it, right? Exactly. This yet another crucial part of the blogging process is essentially getting your stuff out there. Again and fortunately, you have many choices to do this now than in the past. Social channels, organic traffic via blog posts or content optimization, good content marketing campaigns, paid advertising, etc., are all part of the tools at your disposal to spread the word out, expose your brand and more. Here’s some more information on what you can do after creating a blog post.

There you go. The information above should give you a general idea on how to get started when creating a blog or website. In addition to doing your own research, the video below provides added important information about creating a blog or website.

How to Make a Website in 11 Steps