With over 6 million blog posts published daily from the existing 1.9 billion websites, launching a new one to success takes deliberate effort. The numbers aren’t meant to scare you though. They’re just to prepare you for the hard work that running one involves. 

Most successful bloggers have put in thousands of hours to get their websites to rank highly and generate decent revenue. You can make it too. But you must get the basics right. This article outlines a list of some of the must-dos for a successful blog:

1. Pick a niche and identify your audience

It’s usually tempting to present yourself to the online world as an all-rounder. But that might lead to failure, given that your focus is split among several specialties. Your winning point is narrowing down to a specific niche. 

If your reason for starting a blog is to create awareness for your contractor business, you’re better off selling yourself as a specialist in your area. For example, rather than discussing general contracting if this is your thing, be more specific and focus on electrical contracting, plumbing, drywall, painting, flooring, or mechanical contracting. Picking the right blog niche helps you promote your blog to the right audiences, increasing conversions.

2. Analyse your competition

Each niche has pioneers who may already be highly successful by the time you’re launching your blog. As a new entrant, you must find a way to measure up or even exceed them. 

Start by analysing your competitors’ websites to see the content they upload, typical calls-to-action they use, their design, and how they engage with visitors. While at it, outline their strengths and see how you can improve on their ideas to make your blog more outstanding. Also, identify their weak points and see how you can avoid these in your blog.

Another way to survive in a highly competitive business environment is ensuring your technology is up-to-date. For instance, if you’re a mechanical contractor, you could use job-specific software for scheduling and invoicing, such as the one developed by Jobber. Ultimately, you’ll stand out from the crowd and give the public a reason to do business with you instead of your competitors.

3. Register a domain name

Your blog needs a unique address because no two websites can share a name. So, think out of the box and pick an unparalleled but simple name. It could be yourname.com or businessname.com. You could also use other suffixes instead of .com, for example, .net, .me, .website, or .org. However, millions of domain names have already been registered and are currently in use. So, you might have to look for a rare combination of names and top-level domains, depending on your category. Just keep it simple, as you wouldn’t want to trouble your audience with memorising a mouthful of a name. 

It’s also the name that’ll appear in all your business documents, including your invoices, quotes, letterheads, and contract agreements. You could use a free customisable estimate template and brainstorm several options to see how it’ll fit in with your logo and other branding elements.

4. Acquire web hosting

The next step is to choose the company to host your blog. For sure, there are free options out there, but it’s advisable not to use them. They’re usually limited in storage space and other design features. Moreover, some web hosts force ads onto your blogs, which might be a put-off for your audience.

An excellent option is to go for the paid options.  According to PCMag, you can get hosting for as little as USD$2.64 per month. That’s affordable! 

5. Purchase a theme or page builder

Assuming you don’t intend to develop code from scratch, you can take the easier route of using a page builder. It’s easy to use given the drag-and-drop capabilities which enable you to design layouts for different blog pages quickly. 

Pick a theme that aligns with your blog niche. Developers try to optimise them for different niches like health, finance, business, or travel so that you don’t have to tweak the colours or default layouts a lot.

6. Populate with content

With all the preliminaries set in order, you can start creating content. Going live with just a single blog post may not be possible. You’ll, at least, need to fill all menu categories with content so that visitors don’t find a lot of blanks. So, plan for dozens of articles, depending on your blog’s layout.

Aside from written content, you may also have to source premium-quality images to help tell the story. Stock images may work, but an even better approach is to snap pics yourself to make your site authentic. You can also shoot a video or two if your blog has that section. Finally, don’t forget to create all the required service pages and the usual like privacy policy, terms and conditions, about us, and contact us pages.

7. Promote your blog

Don’t sit back and wait for web users to discover your existence by themselves. It may take dozens of years to gain a significant following. Instead, craft a proactive promotion strategy. You could share your posts on your social networks or launch advertising campaigns to push your content to your target audience. A combination of paid advertising and search engine optimisation for organic traffic should get you a significant view count.

8. Track your performance

Analytics help you know how your blog is performing. Among other things, ensure you track:

• Visitor count

• Bounce rate

• Average visit duration

• Traffic sources

• Page views per session

• Devices used

• Conversion rates

These metrics can help you improve your blog in different ways.  Sign up for a Google Analytics account to best check your metrics. 

Conclusion

Launching a new blog is an excellent strategy to market your business. Nonetheless, your approach determines whether or not it’ll be successful. The tips above introduce you to the essential elements of a blog.

 

References

1. “How Many Blogs Are There? We Counted Them All!”, Source: https://webtribunal.net/blog/how-many-blogs/ 

2. “The Best Web Hosting Services for 2022”, Source: https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-web-hosting-services 

3. “How to Measure Website Traffic”, Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Measure-Website-Traffic

 

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