This is a guest post by one of our regular contributing authors Ryan Biddulph. He is a published author and blogger.Today he shares with us 3 incredibly beneficial things to do before writing and publishing that first blog post.
Starting a blog feels scary.
Getting off on the right blogging foot is not as hard as you may think.
Bloggers tend to muck up the process because they try to hit the ground running when crawling would suffice.
I struggled for years because I skipped steps #2 and #3 below.
Start your blog from an intelligent space.
Cut your blogging learning curve by years.
Imagine building a house, patiently laying a rock solid foundation upon which the dwelling rests.
Most new bloggers publish their first post in a desperate rush, build their blogging foundation on sand and struggling mightily for months if not years.
Wise new bloggers learn how to blog properly before typing a word into their WordPress back office.
Don’t bother writing your first blog post until you take these 3 steps.
1: Buy Your Domain and Hosting
Buy your domain and hosting.
Own your online real estate.
Convey a pro blogging brand image.
Gain reader trust.
Act like a pro blogger before you hit the “publish” button.
Purchasing your domain and hosting helps you avoid years of free platform induced struggles.
Free platform bloggers:
- reek “amateur hour”
- lose reader trust
- subject themselves to stringent rules part and parcel with free platforms
Own your blogging home.
Prove that you’re a serious blogger.
Tap into the rich monetizing and branding potential on wordpress,org.
Start blogging intelligently.
2: Follow 2-3 Blogs from Top Blogging Tips Bloggers
Imagine trying to become skilled in any area without following proven, sound counsel from professionals.
As in any discipline, winging it with zero experience leads to struggle, failure, and heartache.
Learn from top blogging tips bloggers how to build successful blogs.
Tap into year’s worth of experience.
Follow 2-3 top bloggers from the blogging tips niche by:
- reading their blog posts
- take notes on their blog posts
- studying the notes
- watching their videos
- following their podcast
Before you dare write and publish a post understand this; blogging school is in session.
Blogging students succeed. All other bloggers tend to crash and burn miserably because they trust their own blogging advice – coming from zero blogging experience – over the insights of skilled blogging pros.
In any offline discipline, this would be seen as madness. Since the physical act of buying a domain and hosting and writing your first post seems easy enough, silly newbie bloggers ignore fundamentals and:
- spam bloggers
- pitch top bloggers as a stranger
- write thin blog posts covering 5 to 10 niches based on their daily whims
Scrap your unintelligent strategy.
Learn from blogging pros.
Blogging pros teach you how to build a successful blog.
Learn how to write and publish your first post before moving forward.
Start off on the right foot.
3: Invest in a Blogging Course
Beware the “free content curse.”
New bloggers often whip themselves into a free content frenzy, feast on helpful blog posts, videos, and podcasts.
But imagine trying to learn physics by piecing together blog posts.
Visualize yourself mastering any discipline, developing a rich skill set, learning, studying and practicing, based on a disjointed collection of blog posts handpicked from various blogs.
This is almost an impossible feat unless you’ve got the mindfulness of Buddha.
Cut years from your blogging learning curve.
Invest money in a blogging course.
Blogging courses:
- layout practical steps in orderly, easy to understand, fashion
- give you a framework through which to build a successful blog
- offer you a singular blogging blueprint to work from when you feel confused, lost or afraid to move forward
Succeed by learning to blog in the proper format.
Use free blog posts, videos, and podcasts as supplemental learning tools.
Invest money in a blogging course. Slowly, patiently and calmly follow this blogging blueprint before you write a word in your WordPress back office.
Blogging courses bring order to a chaotic, excited, sometimes terrified newbie blogging mind.
Your Turn
What tips can you add to this list?
Did you dive into blogging without following these tips?
Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.