3 tips to help newbie bloggers find blogging success

Blogging is still one of the fastest growing components on the internet today. This is mainly due to the fact that it’s pretty simple for anyone to get started with a blog of their own.

Whether it’s through a site like WordPress, Blogger or a custom solution, there is no longer a need for technical skills or knowledge of programming or graphic design. With all of this in place, blogging service providers have found new opportunities for growth through the use of drag and drop site designers that require the end user to never need to touch a line of code.

All of this is well and good, but it’s still important to not forget that there are already over a billion active websites and blogs on the internet today. This means there is a massive amount of content already out there, and more being created daily.

What this means for the newbie blogger is that if they want to be found and grow a following of their own, they need to know what it takes to stand out from the crowd. Before starting your next blog, be sure to implement the following three practices into your content creation and marketing efforts.

Go with a professional web host and get a domain name

In the world of blogging, there are two different directions you can take—the free route and the paid one. In my personal preference, it’s always best to go with a paid hosting plan for your blog, as this will allow you to have complete ownership of your site. Many web hosts will also provide you with a free domain name when you sign up for an account. An alternative like Blogspot is also an option, but once you start playing around with free blog hosting services, then you will start to see your options for customization, ownership and monetization gets limited.

Make sure your content is extremely niche

If you want to find success in the world of blogging, you need to know exactly what your audience wants and how you can provide it to them. The best way to do this is to niche down as much as possible. A good example of this would be going from general sports to basketball, then basketball skills training and one more level deeper to basketball jump training. When niching down your site focus and content, not only will you know who your exact audience is and what they want, you also shouldn’t have any problems creating content and monetizing it with a solid call to action in the process.

Utilize social media and social networks as a traffic source

With more than 2 billion users across major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, it would be a huge mistake to not take advantage of this free traffic source. In addition to simply sharing your latest blog posts with your direct audience, there are many ways you can take advantage of these platforms. One of the best ways to see results is to add social sharing buttons right onto your blog. This is easy enough if you are going to be using WordPress as your CMS. It’s also a good idea to use hashtags and trending topics to help reach new audiences around the world. When it comes to social media, there really is a never-ending supply of traffic and content, so don’t miss your opportunity to cash in on some nice traffic.

How to find success with blogging in 2017

As you can see, the concept of blogging is pretty simple – create great content that your audience will find value in. However, that is only half the battle. You also need to make sure you are putting in the time, work and effort to get your content in front of the right audiences. This is something that will increase over time, along with your SEO and rankings in the search results. When starting out, focus on your content and audience, as this is where the core success of your blogging results are going to come from.

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DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation in writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.