What Happened To Blogging and Having A Great Blog?

Do You Want To Have A Great Blog?

Did you know blogging online began back in 1994? The first recognized blog was linkes.net. It was really a person's personal notes on life. A very simple great blog. Since then over millions of people blog. Another hundred million+ people use social networking sites to blog like Twitter. Twitter is considered a micro-blogging which consist of short and frequent posts.

Many blogs today are multi-authored blogs as one author bloggers find it difficult to compete with more and more blogs being published each day. Many bloggers also do guest posting and sponsored posting.

@Lisapatb the fact that they share it into their communities which = more traffic to the content.

- Kim Garst (@kimgarst) September 24, 2016

@Lisapatb - The freedom to work on a few of our projects with ease Lisa. 🙂

- Harleena Singh (@harleenas) September 22, 2016

@Lisapatb @Ileane Multi-authored blogs bring different voices, audiences, & remove stress of creating all content. Challenge: managing it.

- Maria A. Karamitsos (@FrtheMommyFiles) September 23, 2016

@Lisapatb There are so many great aspects - one of which is learning from such a large pool of talented influencers 🙂

- Curatti (@janlgordon) September 23, 2016

Starting A New Great Blog

Starting a new blog today offers you many choices. The best way to start is having your own self-hosted blog. Self-hosted means you own it. It's your property. If you choose a free blog platform like blogger, Tumblr or wordpress.com you do NOT own the blog. It can come down or disappear at anytime.

Hosting A Great Blog

Having a self-hosted blog means you pay to have it hosted on the world wide web. Which hosting service you pick is a very important decision. When I first started I choose a reseller - not good. I could not get in touch with the person who lived on the west coast when problems arose. (and with blogging they will from time to time) Since then I've been with Hostgator. I love their 24/7 customer service and tech support. That is very important if you are not a very techie person.

Domain Name For Your Great Blog

Another important decision in getting started to blog is the name you choose from your domain. You really need to do some research on this one. If the domain name was used before check out its history. Be sure when you register your name with GoDaddy, etc. that you do for at least 2 years at a time as Google will like it better. If you do just one year they don't take your website as serious. You'd be known as a fly by night company. Be sure to get alerts when it is time to renew your domain. I've found many of my customers websites down as they forget to renew their domain over the years.

Choosing Your Niche Topic For Your Great Blog

Today many experts believe you need to have a narrow niche. Blogs that have broad topics are harder to generate traffic to. I learned this a few years back via Ryan Biddulph. He is the blogger that was a security guard in New Jersey who got downsized. He became flat broke. After being out of work for months he saw his girlfriend making money online. He began the journey of his own blogging and now travels the world as a blogger. I purchased one of his eBooks and realized that having a specific niche was one of the keys to a great blog today.

Setting A Great Blog Up

If you are not very techie online or with computers you may want some help with this one. There is new great resource on how to set up a blogwith step by step details. An easy to follow guide that I highly recommend you check out. I wish this informative resource post was around when I first started to blog.

Generating Traffic To Your Great Blog

This may sound easier to you but in reality it is not so easy. It takes time and patience. The biggest key for generating traffic to your new fantastic blog is to network with other bloggers. I cannot stress this one enough. You must reach out to other bloggers and share their posts too. One cannot survive blogging alone on the world wide web. Here is a great post on how to generate more social shares for your posts. This post truly shows us how we must collaborate with other bloggers and social influencers.

Influencers will add value to your post - Hussain Omar Click To Tweet

Guest blogging is a great way to generate new traffic to your own blog. People who never knew your blog existed may find out from their other favorite blogs when you do a guest post on it. Guest blogging also helps build up your authority in your niche.

Continuing to Blog

To continue to blog you must love what you blog about. You have to be passionate about it or you will not blog month after month, year after year. So many people do not continue to blog after just 1 year. They quit. They lose the desire to blog or were not generating income. Do not blog just for money. It will not work. You must love it. They money will then follow.

Refreshing An Older Blog

You may have been blogging for years now and want to refresh your own great blog. Make sure that the blog is mobile ready. This is another key point for having a really great blog. People today are mobile more than ever before. People are reading blog posts on their phones or tablets. Desktop is no longer the number one method of being online today. Check out Google's mobile ready test here. If your older blog is not mobile ready that is the first thing you need to update.

Keep Your Blog Simple

Many older blogs have too busy sidebars and ads. Keep it simple. The simpler the blog is the easier it is for readers to read your blog when they land there. You can also consider changing your theme. There are many new WordPress themes coming out daily. If you are unsure how to do that hire someone like Virtual Bren who can help. If you are to transfer from something like Blogger to WordPress you may need help with that too. Don't be afraid to try or ask for help.

"I get bored very easily with the look of my blogs, so change is always happening. Whether it's different fonts or colors, or a total theme change, I love making it happen! When I feel the need, I dive right in!" - Brenda Pace Blogger, Designer, Virtual Assistant.

If your blog is too busy the readers will leave quickly. Check your bounce rate and make adjustments if your bounce rate is high. You can check that and many more things via your Google analytics and webmaster tools. Both will give you insights into what parts of your blog may need adjusting.

Updating To A Great Blog Not Always Easy

Some updates to a blog can be easy to do - like changing the blogs color or eliminating elements from the side bar. Other updates like a new theme can be more complicated and you may need to hire someone. Don't be afraid - just be sure who you hire really knows what they are doing. You don't want to end up with many broken links and a negative SEO impact. When you outsource your difficult tasks you can then spend more time writing and networking. That will help you to continue to blog year after year. Blogging is hard work but if you love it you will enjoy it!

Have you started your first blog yet? If you have been blogging for some time have you refreshed your blog to make it more of a great blog? I'd love to know more in the comments below.