The Ultimate Guide to Blogging

📝Intro to Blogging, or Why Bother with Blogging?

While blogging may be a hobby for a lot of people, it is not just a spare time activity to unleash some stored-up creative energy. Although, this in itself is enough justification to start blogging, it can also be a highly effective marketing tool for your business. ✨✨✨

To get a clear picture about the reasons why a blog can have a great impact, you can check out my latest article on the GuidedPR blog here. The advantages are numerous: from creating meaningful content and informing potential clients, to increasing visibility and credibility. This HBR article on why you need to blog already mentions these advantages in 2007, so it’s not a new thing. “Blogging is fundamentally about building reputation and shaping your positioning”, Tammy Erickson writes and over a decade later, it’s still as true as ever.

Now that we know why you should start blogging, let’s explore how you can start blogging with this ultimate guide for starters! 🙌

📝How to Handle the Formalities

Name & Domain

First things first: You need a name. If you have a business or a brand it’s easy. Your blog can just have the same name or incorporate it. If you’re starting out, choosing a name for the blog is the same process as finding a brand name. It needs to be clear and concise, while still reflecting your personality and spirit. Sounds like a lot? Don’t worry, Rebrandly has got you covered with some advice on the name game here.

Your domain should be your brand-name so that your branding is streamlined, accessible, and easy to find. If this is already taken, try adding a verb or adjective to the domain that reflect what you do. 🦚🦚🦚

Platform

Then of course, you need a platform for your blog. You could, for instance, incorporate a “blog” section on your website, or you start a new website as blog and incorporate an “about” section that links back to your social profiles. Unsurprisingly, in this digital age there is a multitude of providers, but to gain some overview, why not check out Quicksprout’s comparison for finding just the right platform to cater to your specific needs.

📝How to Write

No one will know the right content better than you. Blogging is a great way to showcase your expertise in a fun and creative way, to engage potential clients, and to share some more personal stories about your business and personal journey, too – Who doesn’t love a good journey? 💫

To get some more tips on how to write effective blog posts, you can consult this brief guide on Forbes for tips on finding great content. Turning the content into writing that is just as effective and engaging is the next step, there are some tips on Forbes, too, if you click here.

You can create a variety of categories from essay-style articles, to testimonials, to interview series. Nothing’s out of reach and you can incorporate different formats, too: try including graphics, or videos, for instance. As we’ve established in this piece on the GuidedPR blog: video marketing has long been up and coming and proves extremely valuable to your content marketing strategy! 🎥📲

📝How to Keep Things On-Brand

When creating your content, make sure it’s on brand with your whole scheme. The blog will reflect your style, your business colours, and your mode of expression. It can be as casual or as witty as you want it to be. But remember, it’s not necessarily the right space for purely academic or overly complex writing. Through blogging you can learn how to reframe complex issues in a more informal package.

Naturally, not everyone is a designer or website professional, but that’s why we have specialists for everything. If you’re not comfortable, you can always consult someone in marketing, web-design, or a graphic designer to help out and collaborate! 🤝

📝How to Make Sure You're Seen

Last but not least, your wonderful website and content can be as genius as can be – but you won’t reach people if you don’t promote it. As with any campaign or marketing strategy, add links to your blog on all of your social media profiles. Socialpilot came up with an insightful article on promoting your blog through social media, which you can check out here.

As always, keep it cohesive and tend to your content production on a regular basis. This will not only help with your SEO, but it will also ensure that you don’t keep your audience guessing when to check out your blog. SEO is one tool to bear in mind when ensuring that your blog is seen, but if you need some more insight into increasing organic traffic to your website, we’ve got you covered as well: Here are 7 ways to go about it.

The most important thing is to get going. I’ve spoken of journey before, this is just another one with an ultimately rewarding learning curve. It’s always trial and error, but if you bear some of the tips we’ve discussed in mind, you won’t fall into traps along the way. And reading this article on our blog right now is a wonderful meta-twist to kick your creative senses into gear and get started yourself. 📝💬

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About the Author

Sarah is a PR assistant at GuidedPR. She holds a BA hons in English and Comparative Literature and has just moved to London to start her MA in Modern Literature and Culture at King's College London. She's usually busy writing and consuming caffeine. ☕☕☕

Find her on Linkedin here.