How to Blog: Design, Content, Error Analysis

The question of how to blog is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. The answer to it does not begin with the text, as you might think, but with the place of your resource. Social networks, external platforms, your own website - everything leaves its mark.

It will be equally important to decide on the goals of the blog: improving reputation, increasing awareness, increasing sales, etc. It is this add-on that determines the specific steps for maintaining the resource. In this article, we will tell you what you need to do to make your blog useful, the audience grows and the cost of maintaining it is fully paid off.

Blogging Goals

Goals are the first thing to think about before you start blogging. Their definition is absolutely necessary, because it is them that you, one way or another, will follow when preparing this or that post. Of course, everyone has their own goals, and it depends on them which path of advancement to choose.

- Growth in sales

The blog both directly and indirectly helps drive implementation. However, here a lot depends on the activity of promoting the resource itself, be it personal or corporate.

If this is a company site, then all attention is focused on a new product, and each post has a “Buy” button. In a personal blog, talk about the successes of customers, the results achieved, smoothly shaping the reader's desire to own this product.

Purpose of blogging

- Formation and promotion of a personal brand

A blog helps a company or a specialist to purposefully attract a specific, useful audience. For example, a blogger mom sells children's goods along the way. Then she creates content and an image close to the understanding of those who can become her customers.

- Image maintenance

To do this, do not just blog, but also be active in other areas, discuss on forums, share a link to the site.

With the growing popularity of the resource, your image will also gain weight, which will allow you to become an opinion leader, take on the role of an information partner for those who sell related products (and, of course, actively promote your own).

- Creating added value

This is a great opportunity to increase your competitiveness when it becomes difficult to travel only through pricing policy. The company captures the interest of users through the publication of useful content, and thus outperforms competitors.

- Earning Loyalty

Constantly show readers your successful cases, positive reviews, share personal achievements. Form content, thanks to which the audience will perceive you as loyally as possible.

Blog Options

- Personal blog

This is a personal page that you started running just like that, without setting any exact goals. Or they thought something like “I want to collect a bunch of subscribers, become mega-popular and make money here.”

On a personal blog, you can share absolutely any information, talk about your thoughts, observations, describe what pleases or worries you. But if you do it randomly, without thinking about the purposeful, planned development of the page, then don’t expect a large number of subscribers and earnings either. The prospects for this will be very weak.

- Lifestyle blog

Here you also talk about the events of your life, but not about everything in a row, but by choosing a few main topics, in your opinion (2-4). Here you will have to work hard, spend time and effort to give the audience interesting, high-quality texts and pictures. Such a blog, in fact, is something like your own media, in which you share something truly exciting and catchy with your audience.

The prospects for the growth of such a resource are already wider. Here you set yourself a specific goal, develop an account on a social network, try to collect a large number of subscribers, so that over time the page begins to generate income. It is clear that with this approach it is necessary to adhere to certain limits from the very beginning.

- Expert blog

In it, you present yourself to the audience as a good specialist in a particular field. For example, you are a fitness trainer, psychologist, nutrition consultant, marketing consultant, etc. An expert resource is created in order to position yourself as a professional and attract people who need your services.

How to blog like this? Personal topics are not raised here. The exception is when some moments in life are logically intertwined with your profession. An expert blog is designed for commercial purposes, here you collect interested customers, attract new ones and earn money by selling your services.

- Business blog

This is, in fact, a business page of a company or created specifically to promote a particular product. The identity of the author does not appear anywhere at all. As a rule, this is a copywriter hired by the company specifically to maintain an account on the social network and fill it with content. The audience is usually not introduced to such a person, because today it is one specialist, and after a while it can be completely different.

A business blog does not involve people in communication as actively as other formats in social networks. But here, too, you can gather a quite energetic community, get interested in the product, give a lot of interesting and useful information about it on the page, for example, explain how to use it, emphasize the pros, etc.
This is, in fact, a business page of a company or created specifically to promote a particular product. The identity of the author does not appear anywhere at all. As a rule, this is a copywriter hired by the company specifically to maintain an account on the social network and fill it with content. The audience is usually not introduced to such a person, because today it is one specialist, and after a while it can be completely different.

A business blog does not involve people in communication as actively as other formats in social networks. But here, too, you can gather a quite energetic community, get interested in the product, give a lot of interesting and useful information about it on the page, for example, explain how to use it, emphasize the pros, etc.

Blogging Platforms

The next pressing question is where to blog? This, of course, everyone chooses at their own discretion and depending on the goals. If you love social networks - write there, if you prefer to broadcast from your own website - please. Just first get acquainted with the features of certain sites. In social networks, for example, they earn from advertisers and native publications, and the site has an option to launch an advertising banner.

Next - about the advantages and disadvantages of different sites for blogging.

Social media pages

Here it is good to keep a personal online diary, promote your own brand, give announcements for articles published on the site. In this case, you can limit yourself to short notes, long posts are not particularly needed here.

Advantages

• There is already an audience that can only be pulled into your account, invite friends, make paid PR publications.
• Posting here is quick and easy.

Flaws

• It will be difficult to promote a blog through search engines.
• Formatting options are not very great.
• We have to take into account the requirements of the administration of social networks. For example, there is a ranking, and the content content (texts and pictures) is checked by moderators.

The VK network provides more opportunities for creating notes, there is a special snippet for this. In general, if we talk about how to blog on VKontakte, then it is worth mentioning that since 2017 special opportunities have appeared for authors here. We are talking about the Prometheus artificial intelligence system, which, by examining the content of publications of different people, selects the most original options and puts a mark of fire on them. Authors who receive such a mark are given more coverage. In the mobile app, flagged posts are sent to recommendations and are then seen by a much larger number of users.

You can start blogging on Telegram as well. It has long been more like a social network than a regular messenger. Start your channel here and pull readers from other sites. Post here texts, pictures, posts with video and audio materials. You can invite up to 200 people (those who are in the phone book). And then - make announcements on other channels (right there in Telegram, on blogs, on social media pages), use paid advertising for promotion.

On Telegram and social networks, you can check whether you can write interestingly and regularly, how the audience reacts to it. If everything is fine with this, then start working on your site.

Blogging on your own CMS

In fact, this is a classic version of a blog, where content and advertising management is completely in your hands. Such resources are maintained on the platforms WordPress, Ghost, Aegea.

Pros

• You arrange everything as you like: logo, colors, subscription form, add an online calculator, etc.
• If you follow the advice of Google and Yandex search engines (on resource optimization), then good traffic will go to the site, and the blog will be high in search results.
• Ways of self-expression are not limited in any way, everyone writes as he wants, it is possible with obscenities
• You can earn additional income from contextual and banner advertising AdSense, YAN.

Flaws

• You have to pay for hosting, a domain, and even a programmer if you don’t understand everything yourself.
• There is no ready-made circle of the audience; it is necessary to work hard on the promotion and promotion of the blog.

CMS is an option for those who are determined, ready to work hard to support the site, use the blog to earn money in advertising networks, and not just write articles.

Blog on platforms Medium, Yandex.Zen

Medium was conceived as an online space for social journalism. Actually, professional journalists, editors, bloggers live here.

It is good to keep text blogs on Yandex.Zen, with the help of which you can earn money by displaying ads in articles.

Pros

• There are a lot of people here, that is, there is already an audience, it remains only to pull it up to your blog.
• The procedure for opening a blog is simple and fast: register, fill in the profile fields and you can post articles.
• Content formatting is available, which helps to better hold the attention of the audience.

Flaws

• Content content is strictly controlled (in Yandex.Zen, the restrictions are stricter than in Medium).
• Opportunities for monetization are weak.

You won’t make much money on blogging platforms, it’s more a place to express your thoughts, points of view, or to promote your own brand.

By the way, there are platforms where you do not need to pay for a domain and hosting. That is, to blog here, you only need your desire and time.

If we talk about the shortcomings of blogs on free hosting, then this is complete subordination to the platform. There is no access to design management, placement of advertising banners. Your blog may be deleted or blocked altogether.

Technical preparation for launch and blogging

Choose a name

So you're about to start a blog from scratch. Maybe his name has already been thought up, then you need to make sure that it is free. It's easy to do: go to a site that sells domains and hosting, and there enter your name in the search bar. If it turns out that the name is taken, you will have to come up with something else.

It is very good when the name of the blog immediately understands what you are writing about in it. If it's just one specific topic, then of course you'll try to get it reflected in the domain name. But don't stop at just one. That is, in the name of a culinary blog, in addition to the word "Cooking", there may also be "Cooking", "Food", "Dishes", "Recipes". They also understand what is at stake here.

Buy a domain and hosting

The procedure is much simpler than one might think. The procedure is as follows: go to the registrar's website (it is important to choose a reliable one), register, study the packages and select the appropriate option, then select the domain and make the payment. In case of questions or difficulties, there is always technical support, ready to help at any time.

For example, you can purchase a domain from TimeWeb Web Hosting. Here are some more recommended registrars:

• hostinger;
• siteground;
• Beget;
• Sprinthost

Here, when choosing, it matters on which platform you will create the site. There are providers offering packaged services. There will be hosting right away (for a year of use), an ssl certificate for the site, plus a free domain as a gift. TimeWeb, for example, offers a "Year+" package. It has everything (and even more) that you may need for the first site.

Create your own blog

So, you have a domain and hosting. Now you need to create your website on the Internet. Again, at first glance, this is a complex process, but there are platforms specifically designed for this, the use of which greatly simplifies everything. Consider, for example, WordPress.

Here, creating a blog will take no more than a few days, and on your own, without involving a programmer. There are many web hosts that are ready to help you. You can, for example, purchase a domain and hosting, and then ask technical support to help you install WordPress. And on any web hosting there is always a special instruction, which also contains answers to many questions.

Installing WordPress on your hosting is quite simple. There you just press the necessary buttons and wait a minute or two. After that, you just have to go through the settings.

In general, there are many such platforms, but when it comes to creating a website and blogging from scratch, then WordPress is perhaps the most recommended option.

Setting up site settings

So, you have installed WordPress on your hosting. Now proceed to the settings. The first thing to do here is to choose a template. This is, in fact, the general appearance of the future blog. Among the themes offered, there are usually both free and paid options.

Of the paid ones, consider the following:

• Divi;
• Reboot;
• Wescle.

Good free themes:

• bard;
• Ash;
• Shamrock.

The selected template needs to be filled. This means uploading your own pictures, choosing fonts, color design. Plus, you need to think about what sections will be in the blog, create a menu. Here you will have to understand various subtleties, and at the initial stage, you can advise to look at how the sites of competitors are designed, and then take something for yourself from there.

The sections that a web resource must contain without fail are as follows:

• List of contacts.
• Blog.
• A list of goods, services, online courses you offer.
• Section with privacy policy.

Blog design

Users always pay attention to design. An article can be arbitrarily interesting, but on a crooked site, few people will read it and want to subscribe. Bounce statistics directly depend on the design of the page, no matter how strange it may sound.

A study of the most popular and very different online stores showed that all blogs are designed according to given templates.

The four basic variants and their distinguishing features are listed below.

- Background color:

• white;
• grey;
• black;
• image of nature.

Location of the text of the articles:

• horizontally;
• vertically.

Article announcement format:

• title + picture;
• title + date + introductory text;
• title + large picture + introductory text;
• title + image + date + introductory text.

Menu display format:

• horizontal placement;
• the appearance of a drop-down list;
• both horizontally and vertically.

What to choose when you start blogging? How to understand what exactly will attract visitors? In each case, there are pros and cons, it cannot be said that one of the options is definitely better than all the others. Here you can recommend combining them, which will increase the duration of visitor stay on the site by 74%.

For example:

• Background: a beautiful image of nature.
• Arrangement of the text of articles: vertically.
• Article announcement format: picture + title + introductory text + date.
• Menu display format: both vertically and horizontally.

Of course, page design affects conversion rates. And if the informative page is clearly useful, but there are a lot of failures, then something is wrong with the type of resource and you need to urgently change it.

What problems bloggers often face:

Pretty much the same topic. When the Internet was just beginning to develop, the authors worked as carefully as possible to create content. The blogs were full of unique, useful information, valuable observations, instructions, tips, which really showed the competence of the company. Now many authors do nothing but rewrite each other's materials.

Types of published texts. The most popular blogs are articles with news, all kinds of guides, examples, humorous publications. But when the topic is constantly the same, the interest of users gradually weakens.

External design. Of course, it can be attractive and not very attractive, on which the attendance and popularity of the resource largely depends.

Popular Blogging Topics

If you are wondering how to make money blogging, then below are a few ideas for you that you can take as a basis when choosing a topic.

- Articles in list format

This type of content, however, like any other, has its advantages and disadvantages. Users read articles with lists with interest, but on different sites all published ratings are almost the same. Something like the top 10 comedies, or the best books, etc. Who and how chose them is not clear, they are mostly copy-pastes. Most often, people scroll through this, occasionally someone will share, that's all.

If you are compiling a selection, then approach the matter responsibly. We decided to lay out a list of books on psychology, so first read them yourself and comment on each thoughtfully, based on your own impressions. Or use the mailing services that you recommend to readers, do not offer from the lantern. To make money on a blog, you need to really work, and not just sit and click "Copy" - "Paste".

- Practical Instructions

In general, most people do not really want to read instructions. But after all, everyone is constantly buying something: equipment and much more.

How, without delving into the instruction manual, to understand the operation of the devices? View on the Internet! It was the article guides that brought unprecedented popularity to the WikiHow platform.

The interests of Internet users are striking in their diversity. And here you can earn unprecedented popularity for your blog if you find exactly your audience for the chosen niche and give it answers to all questions.

And if you are an expert in some business, then your knowledge will be useful even to advanced users. For example, you are well versed in the tools for creating websites, then compose and publish instructions for choosing an engine.

- Political themes

That has always worried and continues to excite many. People want to be informed, learn about political events, discuss them. For example, there is a blog about politics in the Snob magazine.

The topic, of course, is hot, ambiguous. Therefore, such blogs are also useful in that they teach to analyze, understand the concepts (not to confuse communism with anarchism), and the laws in force. In general, they help to navigate informational occasions and respond to them. But just keep in mind that sooner or later holivars will certainly flare up in the comments, even if you are at least a thousand times restrained and correct on the pages of your political blog.

- culinary theme

Take, in particular, the topic of diets. There are always new ones coming up. In America, the Mediterranean diet is recognized as the best diet for 2022. This is when you eat more vegetables, fruits, nuts. But red meat - to a minimum.

But it's not even about diets, or rather, not only about them. The topic of cooking in general has always been popular, especially blogs in video format. Often they are focused on something specific, such as vegetarian cuisine, or they are tailored to the male appetite with a bunch of meat dishes. A great example is Gordon Ramsay's video blog.

- Science theme

Here, of course, you can not be the second Stephen Hawking, but you still need to understand something. If you feel that you are savvy enough, then feel free to start your own scientific blog.

Just remember that caution and the ability to think critically are needed here. The hypothesis that half of the earth's population is aliens is unlikely to be viable, and most likely will be refuted very quickly. However, the Internet is replete with amazing (to put it mildly) ideas about, for example, that the Earth is still not a ball, but has a flat shape.

- Blog with interview

Of course, the blog will turn out to be bright, individual, rich, if you begin to attract interesting people, experts, leaders, and professionals to participate in it. The publication of photographs, quotes, interviews, that is, something so personal, will help to get closer to the audience. If you want to stand out among the general mass of bloggers, invite only experts (from your field or some other) to interviews.

- Charity, social topics

Suitable for those who take an active life position, initiate public projects, deal with environmental issues, participate in supporting petitions, etc., etc. Of course, you can talk about it in a blog.

Topics like these are sure to get people's attention, especially if you make them lively and interesting. And someone, having taken the baton, will advance the idea further, and this is also excellent. Remember that people are not always ready to express their opinion aloud (even if they agree with you), but they will like it for sure. And with the active support of users, the chances of your projects will increase significantly.

- Blog with reviews

Theme for those who want to earn money by blogging. To monetize your blog through product reviews, you can participate in affiliate programs like Amazon Affiliates. Reviews should be posted on sites that already enjoy the trust of the audience. For example, the blogger Warlord posts his reviews (the theme is LEGO) on the YouTube channel.

- News blog

News from primary sources since the existence of paper newspapers has been and remains a mega-popular topic. But keep in mind that there is always incredible competition here, so the selection of news and their commentary should be approached as carefully as possible. A modern Internet news blog is usually an entire portal, such as the Lenta site.

- Blog where the author shares personal experience

Which one exactly? Absolutely anything: you are losing weight according to the new system, you have started living in another country, you have gone in for equestrian sports, etc. This is always interesting. People like to watch the events of someone's life, and here is a real person who, like everyone else, can make mistakes somewhere, succeed in something, and at the same time he openly talks about everything that happens to him.

Rules for writing blog articles

So, what kind of blog to keep - you have already decided, then how to publish the first article.

Write down the appropriate words and phrases - keys

What do they give you and SEO optimization in general? Google, Yandex and other search engines, having seen relevant keywords, will more often issue an article in the search results, that is, more users will see it.

Think about what words people will type when they want to search for information on the topic described in the article? For example, if we are talking about a recipe for cherry pie, then the list of keys might be something like this:

• cherry pie;
• cherry pie recipe
• best cherry pie recipe
• how to bake a cherry pie.

Of course, there are topics for which it will be more difficult to select keys. Special free services like Google Keyword Planner and Answer The Public will help you here. There are also paid programs of this kind, such as SEMrush or Ahrefs.

Next, be sure to do the following: firstly, organically enter the keys in the body of the text. Secondly, give it the same structure as the articles that appear in the top 10 Google search results. In relation to the above example, you need to drive “Cherry Pie” into the search engine and view the articles that will fall out on the first page.

Be sure to check out what else of interest is covered in these popular articles. For example, there, in the pie recipes, the jelly layer is separately described. This means that this is probably interesting to readers, and you should also pay attention to this issue in your own.

Work out the structure of the article

The structure of the article is also called a fish (meaning its skeleton, with a head, ribs, tail). It makes it easier to visualize how the finished text will look like.

Break the collected material into parts, designate them with headings and subheadings. After each of the last, list the main ideas that the paragraph will include.

The view might look something like this:

Title.

Introductory part:

• A catchy, attention-grabbing detail (quote, playful phrase, unusual fact).
• The essence of the problem.
• Possible way to solve it.

A paragraph with a brief description of the content of the article.

Section #1:

• Title.
• Introductory paragraph.
• Thesis content of the section.
• Recommendations for solving the problem.
• Numbered lists (if you want to include them in the article).

Final paragraph.

Sections 2, 3, 4 and so on.

General final part:

• Highlight the main ideas of the article.
• Formulate a call to action.

Choose a title for the article

Keep in mind that it should be simple, but at the same time intriguing, so that the visitor will definitely want to read the article. A good name is one that:

• Most understandable.
• Immediately speaks about the benefits of the article.
• Affects emotions.
• Arouses interest.
• It stands out among the mass of other titles.

Write your own text

So, the preliminary preparation is completed, it remains, in fact, to finally form the content. Each blogger has his own style and methods of presenting the material. Here are just a few helpful tips:

• Be sure to give something catchy at the beginning of the article. For example, an interesting quote, fact or joke. This is necessary in order for a person to want to read further.
• The less water, the better. Try to make every sentence useful, informative. Share valuable experience, give practical advice, but do not pour water: it's boring, and no one will read a boring text.
• Set the tone of the presentation right away and try to keep it until the end of the article. If this is entertainment content, then both an anecdote and a tale can be screwed in here, but they will be completely out of place in a science content blog.

Be prepared to spend enough time writing the text. It can take hours or even days to prepare good material.

Add pictures

All images used in the article (photos, screenshots) should be both beautiful and, importantly, informative. That is, to echo the topic of the paragraph, or to maintain the mood.

On stock platforms like Pexels, Unsplash, you can find a bunch of suitable free photos (if you don’t have your own)

Work SEO

Check if all keywords are included in the text. You can use the CTRL+F (Search in text) option for this. Do not forget that the keys should look natural in the text, and not hurt the eye, as if they were inserted by a robot.

It will not be superfluous to link to materials similar in content to yours. For example, in that very article about cherry pie, include links to recipes for other pies, or dishes with this berry. This will increase the interest of readers in the blog, plus, as mentioned above, the Google search engine will index your site better.

Don't forget alt texts. These are short descriptions under the photo, by which the search engine will understand what is shown there (remember that Google itself cannot recognize images). It is very good if the alt text includes key words, and if they describe exactly what is happening in the photo.

Enter metadata. This is what is seen on the site card when it appears in the search results.

Finalize the text and publish it.

Re-read the finished text twice, check for typos, factual errors. Then it remains to specify the metadata and click "Publish". Now your first article is out!

Here they talked in detail about how you can promote the site with articles .

Working with readers when blogging

Update your blog frequently

You yourself know what huge flows of information circulate on the Internet. In order for users to show interest in your god, it must be modern and relevant. If posts begin to appear irregularly, readers will scatter very quickly. Therefore, update the published materials at least once a week, and even more often is better.

Tip: if it turns out that for some time you will not be able to post regularly, or you have to suspend publications, then do not write any nonsense according to the “If only it were” principle. But do not think that you have to post something super-genius every time. Let these be small notes, so to speak, thoughts out loud, but twice a week, that is, regularly and systematically.

The condition of regularity is especially important if you have just started blogging and attracting an audience to it. At this time, interrupting publications for a week or two may end up with having to start all over again.

To maintain regularity, you can use such a feature as the publication of the "Favorites" list. That is, at the end of the week (or whenever it suits you), post a list of links to the materials that seem most interesting to you.

- Keep commenters active

Blogs are good because readers can directly discuss posts online, share their opinions, and develop entire discussions. Do not stand aside when you see a reaction to your publications, encourage comments, respond to them. Let people know that they are welcome here, they are listened to. Indeed, for many, this is perhaps the only opportunity to communicate with like-minded people in a friendly atmosphere. So create and support it on your site! And then the same word of mouth will start to work, when some people talk about the blog to others, which, of course, incredibly expands the circle of the readership.

You can encourage comments by asking questions directly in the articles. For example, if you write about how you went on vacation, ask your readers at the end: “Where and how do you like to relax most of all?” People are always happy to participate in such open conversations.

Of course, along with positive comments there will be negative ones. This is a common occurrence, so don’t get too upset and don’t worry, take it philosophically. Delete too rude statements, or just ignore them - it's up to you to decide.

- Reply to everyone who writes to you (by e-mail, blog comments or social networks)'

Yes, it takes time, but trust me, it's worth it. Especially if you have just started blogging, try to maintain any communication with readers. This is how a constant, and, moreover, an extensive audience is gathered bit by bit.

- Monitor how readers behave

If you see that the interest of the audience is weakening, try to understand the reason. Perhaps you didn’t like the theme, style, so try something else, change your strategy. It is clear that you cannot please everyone, but after all, a blog is based on readers, so their interests must be taken into account, otherwise where will the traffic come from?

Evaluating the effectiveness of blogging

Here it is necessary to build on the initially chosen scenario of actions. That is, the effectiveness of a blog is evaluated differently, depending on whether you are running it to earn money, or become famous, or engage in social activities, or promote your professional qualities, etc.

In order to earn through advertising, you need to collect more than one hundred thousand subscribers. But they require much less for those who do not pursue fame, but only want to show themselves as a professional, want to help other people.

- Audience size and engagement

The number of subscribers or regular visitors in itself does not mean anything. There may be thousands and thousands of them, but very few people like, comment or share your posts.

That is, the involvement of the audience is weak. This is just bad. Let hundreds of people read you, however active, useful, people who are really interested in your blog, than you will bring to the page a huge crowd of subscribers (including bots), from which there is zero sense.

So when you blog, look at the number of likes, shares, comments (depending on the platform), and yet keep in mind that, in fact, these are more like proxy metrics for your recognition as a professional.

- Laudatory reviews, thanks from readers

Of course, it's nice to have them. And here it is also very important that they are written by real people, whom you really helped in some way with your notes, pushed them to make the right decisions that changed their lives for the better.

This is the most significant indicator of recognition of the value of what you do. It means that everything is not in vain, you are well done, people can benefit from you.

If positive feedback and thanks come regularly, it means that you are not only noticeable (and even that alone is already good), but also bring up issues that are important for many people for general discussion, touch on burning topics, and help to cope with difficult life situations.

- Proposals for cooperation / Offers to speak to the public

Also quite significant indicators of the effectiveness of a blog or profile. The fact that you are offered cooperation, participation in podcasts, invited for an interview or as a speaker - says a lot.

First of all, let's face it, it's nice. And secondly, you don’t need to ask yourself, look for some opportunities to show yourself. Plus, don't forget about the snowball effect here.

With the growth of fame, the number of incoming invitations to significant projects also increases, which, of course, works in your favor, increases your popularity and significance in the professional community, and makes everything you do more meaningful. It's about capitalizing on efforts that less visible professionals can't count on. But if it is, then completely different prospects (and long-term ones) open up in the work.

- Conversion rate

It is useful to keep track of it, even if you are not in sales. For example, ask how many people who read your articles on other sites have subscribed to your blog or subscribed to your newsletter. Or what percentage of users who viewed the post left their comments.

Most often, these are low indicators, which indicates the need to consistently and systematically work with the audience, give readers real benefits, communicate a lot, bring up real, relevant problems for many for discussion.

Of course, here you need to take into account the behavior of the target audience, its reactions to your content, and be sure to convey something important and valuable to people. Then the conversion will increase.

For example, it's no secret to anyone that on weekends, activity (and hence views) on the Internet is very reduced, people relax. Then why post on a serious professional topic at the weekend? Who will read them?

- Monetization

If you expect to make money by blogging an expert, then think ten times what can come of it. Offline professionals usually have a great income that you are unlikely to get from selling ads or collecting donations on the Internet (although many authors do it well).

The abundance of PR in your posts will cause a devaluation of interest in the blog, the level of trust on the part of readers will fall.

And you don’t have to rely only on donations, even if you have a lot of subscribers, the income there will be small. If we talk about the long term, then it is better to bet on maintaining fame and a good reputation.

This will give you the opportunity to take on more interesting projects (moreover, at a higher price), to cooperate with high-class professionals.

4 blogging mistakes

In order to properly blog, you need to understand what mistakes there are in this business, and how to avoid them. Because just a couple of little things left unaccounted for can negate all your previous efforts.

- The desire to cover several topics at once

Choose one topic and develop it. No need to mix different directions in one pile. If you blog about the art of photography, then articles about repair work, growing seedlings and painting cars definitely do not belong here.

Stick firmly to one chosen topic and attract an interested audience to it.

An important point: several different areas can still be combined in one resource, but you need to act here very competently and thoughtfully.

A blog with a well-defined specific topic is better perceived by search engines, which will ensure your articles rank higher in SERPs.

- No information about the author

Of course, visitors want to know whose articles they are reading. People need an author! Most readers are curious what kind of person you are.

They can get such information from the “About the Author” section, and believe me, such information is stored in memory, which means that the blog itself will be remembered. So you will collect more regular visitors who will be happy to visit and read your articles regularly.

But making an “About the blog” page does not make sense at all. In the header of the site, the essence of the project is already stated, plus everything is clear on the topic of the articles.

- Too many counters on the site

For some reason, many bloggers and site owners act according to the principle “The more the better”. They have counters in the header, and in the sidebar, and in the basement. And everything seems to them that you can add more.

In the meantime, do not forget: when the site has a lot of add-ons, pages load much more slowly. Put one counter - and that's enough. There is simply no need for more.

- Too many ads

Yes, many people expect to earn money by blogging. But what will it turn into if you shove and shove ads into it?

Not a single reader will endure PR pressure for a long time, so even when you connect it, control yourself, do not overload your own resource with PR blocks. Otherwise, users will get tired of it, and they will stop entering, they will find other places where nothing interferes with the perception of information. A fairly large part of the audience will gradually drop out, and then there will be no profit from PR.

Important! Search engines also do not like sites with a lot of advertising, so your resource may also fall under sanctions.

So it’s better to have less PR, but high-quality, what works and makes a profit, without conspicuous.

Useful blogging services

- noisli
The problem for the vast majority of bloggers is to gather their thoughts and start writing anyway. When you get into it, it becomes easier. But here is the initial moment, as a rule, the most painful, any little thing distracts, either the noise from the street, or some kind of movie on TV. It seems that even absolute silence also interferes with normal concentration.

In such cases, Noisli's background noise generator can be of great help. There are a lot of sound effects here: the noise of the forest, rain, the street rumble of cars or voices, the sounds of a burning fire, white noise, etc., etc. You can select several at once, adjust at your discretion: rain, for example, muffle , and make the crackling of the fire a little louder. There are sounds to relax or, conversely, to increase activity. Here you will definitely find what is perfect for you.

• Trello

A special online organizer with which you can organize and customize everything so that your activities are as productive as possible. This is especially true when you are running more than one project.

Using Trello is very simple: you need to create a board, distribute the stages of execution on it, and write cards with tasks for each. It is possible to attach photos, links to documents from Google Drive. There are timers that make it easier to keep track of deadlines. In general, projects are presented more clearly, with all their strengths and weaknesses.

• Text.ru

There is also Spelling, but Text.ru is somehow more popular. Here you can check the text for spelling, uniqueness, SEO, and find synonyms for words for free.

• Sociation

An indispensable tool for those who are constantly struggling with the selection of pictures that match the text. Sociation first selects associations for the word you are interested in, and then, relying on them, already finds the desired images.

• "Reformer"

The author of the instrument is Artemy Lebedev. "Reformator" helps to bring the content to the form in which it can already be placed on the site.

If, for example, the text cannot be copied from Word or from a browser page, then all formatting has to be done manually. The "reformer" itself will remove unnecessary paraphernalia, tags, and form the code as required by the XHTML standard.

Other useful services that will be useful for preparing a personal blog:

-Wordstat - This is the same Yandex query statistics, the name of which many do not remember, but are used regularly. The service shows the word that you yourself enter into the search, and requests from other users that are close to this given word.

• Classes - A place that contains a bunch of various dictionaries, spelling, explanatory, dictionaries of synonyms, in general, any that authors may need.
• Clipping Magic is a good service for bloggers who have a lot of visual content on their page. The tool allows you to remove unwanted backgrounds, such as dimly lit, or white, which does not look white at all in the photo, but dirty gray. In such cases, Clippingmagic will help you.
• Infogram- Tools for creating infographic elements are collected here. With Infogram, you can build various types of diagrams - everything you need to more fully convey the content of the text.
• Inpaint- Allows you to remove unwanted objects from the photo. You can easily erase what you think is superfluous from a photo.
• Placeit- Create beautiful illustrations using your product photos. That is, it helps to present the product or the site itself in a more attractive way.
• Speechpad- Voice notepad. You can speak any information into the microphone, and Speechpad will present it as text. Or converts any audio and video files in printed form. Not a bad tool for transcribing interviews; Not perfect, of course, but still there.
• "Fresh Look" - An additional service for Google Docs that allows you to find places in the text where words that are similar in phonetics and morphology are not far from each other. That is, Fresh Look notices a tautology. You can carefully proofread the text yourself, or you can use this tool, which, by the way, is free.
• "VAAL System" - The tool builds predictions on the unconscious impact of the text on the reader. This allows you to immediately set the desired vector effect to the content in the process of writing. Development on VAAL has been underway since 1992, among the available versions there is also a free one, which is a regular program that can be used by simply installing it on a computer.

Perhaps now you have enough information to understand how to blog properly. Just immediately be prepared for the fact that there will be no momentary return from it. This is something like a funded system, the results will have to wait and work in the process. But the effect will eventually turn out to be permanent, traffic will begin to grow, recognition - the same as trust from the audience. So try, dare, develop in this direction and may good luck accompany you.