Blogging is becoming more and more common these days, and there's a blog
for almost everything, from health and fitness to free software, and so
on. And no wonder why. Blogging is one of quickest and easiest way to
get your views or content online. And before you know it, you're
immersed in a whole new world of blogging. You can use this blog for
anything, sharing your life with friends and family, earning money, educating others, and so on. Indeed, blogging is one of the best ways you can earn money online.
But a lot of people who start blogging don't know where to go, or don't
keep a few things into consideration. Such things are all the more
important right now for anyone who is thinking of starting a blog. Here,
we'll try to list some of them.
Build up the motivation
Well, easy as it may sound, blogging is no walk in the park. This is
something every blogger, especially beginners, should be mindful of.
Nothing is easy in this world, and nor is blogging. The most important
ingredients you'll need for blogging are hard work, will-power, and
motivation. Without any of these, your blog will be just
another existence online without real meaning, known by only a few
people. So build up some motivation and will-power before you start
blogging, because if you lose heart midway, all your hard work will be
lost.
There's a lot of competition out there
Alright. The next thing you should know is, the world of blogging is
jam-packed with people, eager to make money. There is a lot of
competition out there. There's a blog about almost anything you can
imagine. And they're pretty well ahead of the game, given all these
years they've been utilizing to make their blogs better. So to have any
hopes of rising to the top, you'll need to create unique, and original
content. This is very important, because quality content is the key to
any blog.
Can your blog survive?
If you're a newbie to blogging, and want to start off your own blog,
then chances are, you are aiming for a small-investment blog. Such blogs
only require a small amount of investment to run, and this includes
hosting charges, buying templates/themes, and maybe a few premium
plugins. This very blog you're reading is a small-investment blog. For
low-investment bloggers, it is important to know that there are large
corporate blogs out there, funded by, or managed by an entire
organization, with dedicated a dedicated marketing team, managerial
staff, and paid authors. In short, you don't just have fellow bloggers
to worry about. Can your small blog even survive against such large
blogs? For that to be possible, you will need to work that much harder
on creating unique and original content, something which the readers
would enjoy more.
Remember - no plagiarism
This proves to be the deal-breaker
for most start-ups. Some people don't realize how serious an issue
plagiarism is. They read something they like, and copy paste it on their
own blogs, even if just for the sake of having something to share. What
they don't realize is, there are lots of penalties involved. Even ad
servers like AdSense will ban you for plagiarized content. Also, someone might report copyright violation, which will also land you into trouble.
Be the good guy, not the bad guy
The web is filled with spam nowadays.
auto-bots, spam links, plagiarism, article spinning, you name it.
Before starting your blog, you need to make up your mind whether to be a
good guy or a bad guy. If you want to be a good guy, you will have to
let go of ever spam or bad practice. Avoid getting spam links, or
setting up robots to spam other sites with comments. And for the bad
guys out there, Google and other engines are out there to get them by
introducing penalties and algorithmic updates. So if they are successful
once, that doesn't mean they'll always be successful. Google will
eventually take down such sites.
SEO penalties - be prepared
In the past few years, Google has
been implementing a lot of changes. So what might have worked a couple
of years ago might not work out now. As I just mentioned, it has been
trying to cut down on spam, and has introduced many updates and
penalties. Shady, over-optimized, black-hat SEO sites have been penalized, and good SEO practices are promoted. So learn and implement them on your blog to stay on the safe side. Here's something that might help;
- 20 Hot SEO tactics every blogger should know about.
- 10 Great SEO tips for start-ups in under 10 minutes
Watching out for updates
Google rolls out algorithmic updates every year now. In the last two years, it released the Panda and the
Penguin algorithms. These algorithms hit a lot of websites, and from
the looks of it, will continue to do so unless you do something about.
Therefore, as a beginner, you should look out for such updates, and
learn to adapt to them. Here is how you can adapt to the panda and
penguin algorithms;
- Top 10 SEO strategies to protect your blog against Panda
- How to recover from the Google Penguin update penalty?
Go social
Google is now putting more and more emphasis on going social, especially
on Google+. The +1 and share buttons have already appeared in search
results quite some time ago. And Google is now integrating everything
together, so if you don;t have a Google+ profile, you might as well make
one now.
Work on your AuthorRank
We did a detailed series on AuthorRank. But I will mention it here
nonetheless. Just like PageRank ranks webpages, AuthorRank will rank
authors. Google+ profiles are essential for this. This way, spam will be
reduced, and people who write quality content will rise to the top. It
won't matter if they are beginners or veterans. And also, their
AuthorRank will impact their PageRank. So start working on your
AuthorRank, and create quality content. We have talked all about this in
our series, which you can access from the following link.
What is AuthorRank, and how exactly does it work?
Did you find this post useful? Do let us know what you think in the
comments below. Also, feel free to ask questions here. Peace :)
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