6 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My First Blog

Blog Competition is Stiff

To say there’s a lot of competition in the blogging stratosphere would be an understatement. While there’s no way to tell exactly how many blogs are currently on the Internet, some sources estimate the number to be around 152 million. If you plan on getting noticed, you’ll need to focus your blog around a high-traffic, low-competition niche; otherwise, you simply won’t achieve any serious degree of success.

You’ll Need to Moderate Visitor Comments

Assuming you allow visitors to submit comments (and you should!), you’ll have to invest the necessary time and energy into moderating those comments. Newcomers often assume that blogs receive 100% real, legitimate comments, but in reality the vast majority are nothing more than spam. Certain tools like the anti-spam plugin Akismet can help to block these spam comments; however, some will likely sneak through, which is why it’s important to get into the habit of moderating your blog’s comments on a regular basis.

SEO Isn’t Easy

Think optimizing a blog for higher search rankings is easy? Think again. Sure, blogs are inherently designed to be “search engine friendly,” but this doesn’t necessarily mean that they will rank high for your target keywords. In order to achieve a desirable search ranking, you’ll need to focus on building a high-quality blog that’s filled with plenty of relevant content and follow on-page SEO best practices. Google has said that content is the single most influential factor in determining a site’s ranking, and blogs are no exception.

Blogging and Social Media Go Hand-in-Hand

You can’t expect to create and maintain a successful blog without actively promoting it on a social media. Blogs differ from standard websites in the sense that they emphasis a community built around bloggers and visitors. This is similar to social media networking, and as such, bloggers should use social media to promote their posts. If you haven’t done so already, create profiles and accounts on all of the leading social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+.

All Blogging Platforms Are Not the Same

Sure, they may have similar features, but there are some stark differences between the different blogging platforms. WordPress, for instance, retains its crown as being the leading blogging platform. It’s fast, SEO-friendly, and has tens of thousands of plugins and themes. Google’s Blogger, on the other hand, has a very limited number of templates and add-ons, limiting its utility as a blogging platform.

Blogging is Time-Consuming

Let me rephrase that: starting a blog requires very little time. But if you plan on maintaining your blog, you’ll find yourself spending a fare amount of time doing so. From researching new topics to writing posts, editing, and moderating comments, blogging will consume a great deal of your time. If you aren’t willing to put forth the time required, you simply won’t succeed. Consider outsourcing it to a company like ContentFirst.Marketing, who can handle all of the blogging for you!

Have any other blogging tips that you would like to share with our readers? Let us know in the comments section below!