Blogging for Beginners

In this blog I will give you information and tips to get you started in the world of blogging and explain why you should bother to blog.

What is a blog?

The word blog comes from web-log and they started as personal diary websites. In a blog, people write regularly (or post) about something they are interested in. For personal blogs the subjects can be politics, recipes, your cat or anything else you feel passionately about. Unlike most text on a web page the idea of a blog is that readers can comment on and share what they read, and it is an opportunity to express personal opinions.

Why should I blog?

For businesses the main reason for blogging is that it is a relatively cheap and straightforward way to put content on your website. Blog pages are usually set up so that it is easy to add a new post with text and photos and publish it on your website without needing more than a few minutes training.

Adding informative articles to your website keeps the site fresh and aids Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). They can also be a key part of a Social Media strategy as after you have written a blog you can then spread the word and link back to it through other platforms (eg Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn) and if people find the post useful it will lead to increased traffic to your website and potentially new customers.

What should I write about?

For businesses, you need to think about what your customers will be interested in and write about that. It should be something that is relevant to your industry but it shouldn’t be a direct sales pitch. It may be something topical or that answers a common problem or is intriguing. Some examples include a list of queries to your helpline, a guide on how to fix a technical problem yourself or trends in your industry. Listicles, e.g. Top Ten Honeymoon Destinations, are very popular but be careful of overdoing it e.g. The Top Ten Hottest Honeymoon Destinations in the History of the World - Read This and be Amazed, is going too far (in my opinion anyway.) 

Sub-heads and photos act as signposts to guide the reader through your article.

How do I start?

You need to think about what you want your readers to learn by the end of the post and start by making that clear. The old adage “Tell ‘em what you are going to tell ‘em, Tell ‘em and tell ‘em again” applies to blogs, thought it doesn’t just mean to repeat yourself. One way to approach writing a blog is to spend some time thinking of ideas and doing research for 2-3 topics then write about them all just dumping your ideas without editing them. Then come back later and tidy them up and check the details.

Structure your post

Start with a couple of introductory sentences explaining what the post is about then use sub-headings to break it up. These signpost the reader to particular areas of the blog and if they are skimming the content they will pick up the gist of your content. 
Bullet points can be helpful too. Include photos with captions and links to sources of further information, other pages in your website, previous posts or other useful blogs you found while researching the information.
End with a brief summary and request a share or like of the post. Publicise your post on social media and if you do get any comments be sure to respond to them, politely.

Don’t leave your title till the end

A title for your blog is very important and needs to grab attention and explain what the post is about. If you can make it sound interesting or unusual you are more likely to get people to read it, but don’t be too wacky or oversell what your article is about. For example, a post for a car hire company would do better with the title “How not to end up in A&E” rather than “How to drive safely”. However, make sure the words How to drive safely are in the first sentence or two so that if someone searches for this information they will find your post easily.

How personal should it be?

In a business blog you can be less formal in your language than you would be on the main pages of your website but you should still remain polite and professional. Check the content for spelling and grammar errors or better still get someone else to check it for you. See my previous blog about how to check for spelling errors.
The style of language should be similar to talking to a single person and it can help to have a customer in mind that you are addressing. Talk to them directly saying you and your rather than they and their. Keep sentences short and paragraphs of only 2-3 sentences.

How long should it be?

An average blog post is probably 300-500 words but it is better to be concise and to the point rather than long and waffly.

How often should you blog?

Ideally you should build up to one a week or at least two a month. This is easier if you put aside a few hours and write two or three blogs in one go. 

I hope that has proved helpful and will allow you to get started with your blogging. In a future post I will talk about using hashtags, keywords, RSS feeds and other ways to publicise your blog to the wider world. If you found this helpful, please share this post or comment below.

Happy blogging.