10 Tips To Get Started Blogging With WordPress
Writing articles is a great way to get your website visible to the world, visited by people who are interested in what you have to say and indexed by the search engines. Putting those articles on your blog decreases the time it generally takes to start getting visitors. This article will give you the basics of getting started with blogging.
There are many blogging platforms from which to choose, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Having a blog on your own website has many more benefits than most of the others. The two main benefits are branding and control. You want the link to your blog be one that people remember and relate to you, such as your own domain name. Control is important so you can do anything with your blog that you want, without the fear of having the site removed due to inappropriate content.
Once you decide on a blogging platform, which is hopefully WordPress since it installs on your own website, you need to get some things in order.
1) Create a Good Name and Tagline for Your Blog.
You should put some thought into your blog title and address name. You want something easy to say and type so that when you give out the address to other people, they will easily remember it. You also want your title to help remind people what you are blogging about. If you are mainly writing about yourself and your daily activities, find a catchy name that helps draw people in. If you are writing about business-related issues, make sure the main keywords are in the blog title, tagline and if possible, in the domain name itself.
2) Select Your Theme Template
Test multiple templates until you find one that works for your purposes. Sometimes having all the cool gadgets right away takes away from other parts of your website. I have found that most people look at your top two most recent posts and only venture into clicking on your blog roll and other fun gadgets if they are regulars to your site. I think the simpler and aesthetically pleasing your blog is, the more you will find people sticking around. I personally do not like sites with tons of flashing ads, links and text everywhere because it distracts the readers from what you are really trying to do there. For some good WordPress themes to start with, visit Weblog Tools Collection.
3) Choose Your Blogging Style
Content blogging focuses on informational articles within a certain niche, filled with content that helps inform your readers about a specific topic (typically something you know something about). Journal blogging is a collection of your daily activities and what your opinions are on all kinds of topics. You have to be exclusively one or the other, but you should have a focus one way or the other to establish consistency.
4) Write Your About Page and Profile
Your first post can be a practice run to say a little bit about yourself and what you hope to do with your blog. Create it as a page instead of a post. That way it will always show on the menu bar. You can refine it as you go along. Having a good About page very important. Use your real name, let people know what your interests are, how you got started with your business, what you like to do for fun, etc. Let your readers get a good broad picture of who they are dealing with. My about page is the second most popular page on my blog, because people want to know a little bit about who this writer is.
5) Get A Contact Page
You can find plugins for contact pages in WordPress which makes it really easy for people to contact you. Whether you leave a link to your email address, or have a contact page, it is really important to make yourself easily accessible to your readers.
Dustin Diaz is a User Interface Engineer for Google and author of JavaScript Design Patterns. He wrote a nice contact plugin for WordPress.
6) Find and Link to Other Blogs
You can learn how to blog and what to write about by reading other bloggers. You can find great blogs by searching Google.com for blogs in your industry or topic of interest, or by going to specific blog search engines like technorati and sphere. That is really important, especially if you are focusing on a content blog, to find other bloggers who are writing about your topic. It is good to engage with people who both agree and disagree with your points of view.
7) Set A Regular Blogging Schedule
How often you write is not as important as how consistent you are. If you post once a week for a while and then wait a month, people will stop checking your website. Being regular in your writing will help engage your readers and keep them interested.
Experiment With Writing Style and Content
Experiment with different types of posts, content, template styles, and see what works best.
Do not expect to get it perfected and remember that it takes time to get interaction on your site. Play around with ideas and topics. Going through your website traffic stats each week will help you see how people are using your site and which pages are most popular.
9) Let Others Know You Are Online
Send out a friendly email and tell all your friends and co-workers about your new blog. Inviting people into your conversation is a great way to get started. Also announce it on social networking sites like MySpace and Twitter. Commenting on blogs like Problogger (www.problogger.net) will get some people to click over to see who you are and what you are about.
10) Get Additional Training On Using Your Blog
When you order blog Hosting from Website Managers, your blog is set up with some of the most popular and beneficial plugins. You are also offered training on how to use your blog and manage the plugins. By the end of that training, you will be ready to get started blogging on your own and generating traffic to your website.
I hope this has helped guide you through getting started blogging. Your comments are welcome.
Jim Hutchinson
Website Managers
