At its core, the act of blogging is pretty basic.
You think of something to write and then you write it.
Unfortunately, that is how a lot of people approach blogging and that’s what gets them in trouble.
You’ll understand why this is a bad approach shortly.
I teach people how to build successful blogs every single day and by no means do I think any of this stuff is complicated.
It just gets really complicated when you overlook some things.
So that’s what I want to talk about in this post. For me, Blogging Basics are the things that you need to keep in mind if you want to build a successful blog.
When I tell you these things you might think that they are pretty obvious and they definitely are if your head is up and your eyes are open.
But as we know in life that isn’t always the case.
7 Blogging Basics You Need to Know
Will you become a blog master after knowing this stuff?
Not at all but you’ll at least have an idea if blogging is for you.
1. What Is Blogging?
It seems like there should be a single definition for blogging but I don’t think there is.
The reason is because there are two approaches to blogging:
- Blogging as a Hobby
- Blogging as a Business
I don’t touch #1.
I want to make money and that’s why I treat blogging as a business. What this means is that your blog becomes the marketing arm of your business.
This might sound very formal to you but don’t sweat it.
When you blog as a business it means that every piece of content you write has a purpose of serving your audience. When you do that you open the doors up to money-making opportunities.
There is nothing wrong with blogging as a hobby. It’s very therapeutic.
It just isn’t for me.
Which leads me to the next point.
2. Yes, You Can Make Money Blogging
Every single year since 2016 we’ve made over $250,000 mostly thanks to blogging.
Our blogging course, The Blog Simple Framework, is intended to help you create a blog that makes $1,000-a-month in 6 months or less. There is money in blogging.
Just not blogging as a hobby.
If you want to dive deeper into how to make money blogging then check out the post How to Make Money Blogging.
3. It’s All in the Niche
Your blogging success is going to be dictated by the topics that you decide to blog about.
This can really trip people up as they want to write what they want to write about.
I understand the sentiment but if you want to make money blogging you should do a bit of research to see if it’s even possible to make money blogging about the things you want to blog about.
For example, I love to customize sneakers but I’m not so sure there is money in a blog about customizing sneakers.
I’m not the biggest fan of gardening but I do know that there is money in starting a gardening blog so I keep that option available to me.
While I’m not going to go into detail in this post about how you should choose your blog niche, one thing you can do is search for other blogs in the areas that you’re interested in.
Do they have ads? Do they sell information products? Are there other ways they make money?
If you do an extensive amount of research and you can’t find anything, that might be a red flag.
4. Your Content Will Make or Break You
Is there any point for someone to visit your blog if your content isn’t good?
The problem is, everybody thinks their content is good!
However, what you need to do is study the other blogs in your niche and get a feel for the quality of their content.
You might be surprised to find that a lot of them are complete shit.
Like really bad.
That doesn’t mean you get a green light to create shit as well.
You always want to try and be the best out there so that people visit your blog and stick around.
If I don’t think I can create content about blogging that is better than everyone else, then there isn’t much point in me doing so because you’ll be more attracted to other blogs.
I can’t have that.
Does this mean that you’ll have the best content right out of the gate? Probably not.
This stuff takes practice and that means you need to stick with it if you wish to see any type of improvement.
If you can’t learn how to write great blog posts then at the end of the day you’re going to struggle.
Forever.
5. WordPress Is Always Recommended
WordPress is the king of blogging software.
While there are other options, almost every blog expert will recommend WordPress to you. Don’t worry, it’s free. You just need to pay for hosting.
Some people don’t like WordPress because they believe it is complicated.
While that can be true you can learn the ins and outs of it fairly quickly if you take your time.
Of course, you don’t need to master it to publish your blog posts.
Simply open up the editor, write your content, and then press “Publish”.
6. Blogging Takes Patience
There is definitely an “if you build it they will come” vibe to blogging.
You’ll (hopefully) bust your ass creating content and when you publish it you almost expect people to start coming.
But they don’t.
It can take a while to build up traffic for your blog and this can be very discouraging for people.
That’s why in Blog Simple Framework we focus on a specific set of steps that help us build up our blogs as quickly as possible.
We are not the patient types.
It Doesn’t Have to Take Months to Monetize Your Blog
The sooner you can create your book and get it out, the sooner you have a chance of making money with every single person who visits your blog.
The 12-Hour eBook Method was designed to help you get a book onto your blog in the shortest time possible so you don’t need to wait until you hit 100,000 pageviews before you can start making money.
7. Blogging Is for Them, Not You
A big misconception is that because it’s your blog and you’re doing the work, everything you write is for you and in your best interests.
That isn’t the case.
People visit blogs because they want to know something.
Usually, they want a solution to a problem.
You’re here because YOU wanted to know about blogging basics. I’m not writing this because I’m interested in blogging basics.
I already know the blogging basics!
However, because my blog is a business it’s important that I serve you and that means writing the content that you want.
Does that mean I can’t have fun with it and add my own sauce?
Of course not.
You need to have fun with your writing but you must always understand that it needs to serve your audience.
If it doesn’t, then you’re back to hobby blogging.
The Basics Are Basic
If you can keep these basics in mind you’ll find yourself with an advantage over others that tend to ignore such things.
Why do they ignore them?
I couldn’t tell you.
They just do.
It’s silly but that’s the way things go sometimes.
