How to create a unique blog that reflects your personality and drives readers to you. Here we take you to the exact method to success.
Why would you blog?
Because you are you, you are unique, and you want to share your thoughts with others.
Blogging is storytelling and taking readers into an adventure that has a successful conclusion.
No matter what the subject is, every niche will have a following. Naturally, some will be bigger than others, and some will have more readers, however, with billions of readers out there the skill is to get them to your blog
A Pulitzer is generally not the first time writing
To become a successful blogger will take some time, however, that time starts with your first blog. It is like a marathon, if you don’t take that first step, it can never happen.
My job today is to hold your hand as we go across the starting line.
One book in a library
Think of blogging as similar to writing a book. You do all the work, and the hard copy gets put on the back shelf, way up top at the National Gallery.
Your book is way at the back. You are unknown and all the best books are on display.
You may get a random searcher to stumble on the book but are you that lucky?
Somehow we need to coax the library into giving you a bit of an even break.
Every blog has a niche
We tell the library the book is about gardening and can they move it to a section related to that subject. So now you move up the rank with a thousand other excellent books to the botanical department.
Then we can try and define the search a bit more. Perhaps we say while the book is about gardening I really want to talk about roses. They now move the book to the rose section, and there are only a couple of hundred other books to choose from.
Perhaps we meant to say, well the book is about roses, but specifically the thornless rose “Zephirine Drouhin. ” something special and what we can do about it.
Now when they walk into a library and ask about thornless roses, they will be directed to a ledge with half a dozen books on this subject.
This is how we build keywords so that you will be found on the web.
This one step is the single most crucial issue that you face. Being read.
You may have the best blog, but if no one reads it all your work is wasted.
I will give you a tool to work with this later on this page.
How you create a unique blog is an ongoing process.
Ways to blog
Naturally, all blogging is done on the internet. In the clouds hosted somewhere in the world by Google and others.
Blogging is done on a website with your name as a post or page or even a funnel but in simple terms, it’s a page of writing, sometimes called a post.
It’s a mini-book that takes readers on a short journey and not a long trek.
The rules around blogging
The number one rule is to do everything possible to be read.
You will use Keywords to your best effort and promote your article as often as possible.
You can’t do book signings, but you can use social media to significant effect.
SEO (search engine optimization) is essential, and the structure of your blog and finally, great content.
For further reading on what is a blog post
What do you want to write about?
Choose a broad term and then condense it down into small bits. Those are the little bits that will keep you writing.
Motor vehicles is a broad term.
Then what are the best brands of cars break it down, Ford readers won’t want a lot on Chrysler, etc
Big cars, little cars, sports cars, V8 and 2 cylinder cars.
Go right down to something like how to adjust the rear wiper blade on a 52 Mustang.
By taking this idea to any subject, you will find hundreds or thousands of everyday topics that can capture readers. What is a lifestyle blog?
Keywords are structured in three basic methods.
| Basic | Usually just one word |
| Mid tail | A couple of words |
| Long Tail | Going out to five or six words |
Do you need to show yourself when blogging?
It is your decision on how to brand your blog. It may be personal or under any name, however, design it to last forever.
Creating a brand
You may notice that I brand all my work with a Photo and an about link. I am a brand, so I show myself at every opportunity. You're not listening to some no it all young punk, you are dealing with an old bloke who has stories to tell and has experienced some life.
One brand I like was an Australian guy that wrote on financial affairs under the brand Pierpont.
Since 1972, the Pierpont column, written by Trevor Sykes, has entertained and informed readers about high and low finance. The column, one of the longest-running in Australia’s history, now appears in the Australian Financial Review on the first Friday of each month.
Sykes retired in 1952, but his product lives on.
Choose a name to blog with
Do you want to use your own name or a pen name? Both are good and have different advantages. When using ghostwriters, a pen name may be better. I love the story of John LeCarr, the M16 spy writer.
Of all the writers, John le Carré probably has the coolest reason for using a pseudonym—spies can’t use their own names when they publish books. I mean, obviously! He wrote his first novel, Call for the Dead, while an MI5 agent, but it didn’t print until he had moved to MI6. As le Carré explained:
I was what was politely called “a foreign servant.” I went to my employers and said that I’d written my first novel. They read it and said they had no objections, but even if it were about butterflies, they said, I would have to choose a pseudonym. So then I went to my publisher, Victor Gollancz, who was Polish by origin, and he said, My advice to you, old fellow, is to choose a good Anglo-Saxon couple of syllables.
Le Carre
Chunk Smith tells us how
Monosyllables. He suggested something like Chunk-Smith. So as is my courteous way, I promised to be Chunk-Smith. After that, memory eludes me, and the lie takes over. I was asked so many times why I chose this ridiculous name, then the writer’s imagination came to my help. I saw myself riding over Battersea Bridge, on top of a bus, looking down at a tailor’s shop. Funnily enough, it was a tailor’s shop, because I had a terrible obsession with buying clothes in order to become a diplomat in Bonn. And it was called something of this sort—le Carré. That satisfied everybody for years. But lies don’t last with age. I find a frightful compulsion towards truth these days. And the truth is, I don’t know.
Trust a spy to keep the real story close to his chest. Well, at least he didn’t go with “Chunk-Smith.”
Setting up a header
A consistent image allows your following with easy recognition. This is really simple to do.
Sign in to Canva.com for free and do your best artwork. Create something friendly and bright without a whole bunch of words. Save it and use it regularly or include it as the heading for your blog.
Starting to write a blog
“It was a dark and stormy night” was a great heading used in the past. It was attention-seeking and added a degree of mystery so that people would read on. You are in the entertainment business and pulling readers right through your page.
When someone searches for a keyword, they will have several alternatives to choose from so having a grand opening drives them to you.
Mostly they want answers, and that is why they are searching so you can provide the solution.
I used ” How to create a unique blog” This is a search term of interest that will draw readers that have an interest in blogging.
Then I have supplied an answer to the heading to suit the reader.
Adding Analytics to a blog
your traffic can be seen in Google analytics, a free site for everyone.
The program is powerful and is a definite inclusion to support any blog or post.
You can set it up with a Google account and add a small piece of code to your site.
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, currently as a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform brand. Google launched the service in November 2005 after acquiring Urchin. Wikipedia
You will find analytics to be a great reference for tracking your results
Utilizing keywords
As I said at the start, everything revolves around a keyword, it is your address on the web.
A keyword tracker looks at several issues.
- Total traffic score
- Page one traffic
- Degree of Competition
- Your chance to be read
- My Keyword was “How to create a unique blog.”
As you can see, we have sufficient traffic, only 48 people ahead of me and a high SEO score indicating a natural ranking.
My actual site is Onlinebusinessmarketing.info, however, this is a blog post on that site.
You can learn more about Keywords here
Your keyword selection is the start of a journey.
Traffic or position? Which is the best?
You will need both of these in your blog. If there is zero traffic, there are zero readers; however, if there is vast traffic getting to page one will be difficult. Remember, most readers, over 80%, never go past lines one or two in a search.
Quantity over quality, where do you choose?
The answer is quantity every time. Your first effort will never be a prize winner, you need time to craft your skills and practice in public. We all make mistakes, and you only learn from doing the work.
I am not saying churn out rubbish, I am saying press the send button before the third review.
However, please use a sound spell check system like Grammarly free version.
Take a few lessons
I have just invested sometime looking at writing courses that I could recommend. I reviewed some affiliate sites and Udemi and did a bit of research on what I could float for you.
Most of my skills have come through Wealthy Affiliate, a training and web host site that you can enter for free. I thought it would be different, I would throw in a few paid alternatives to provide you with a choice.
It is always good to use reference sites and take the best on offer.
My conclusion was that I would write an excellent course and charge for it and be a lot better than everything else I had seen online.
The result of my research was that Wealthy Affiliate stands out from the crowd and is really worth a look, not just because it is free, it offers everything in one package. No up-sells or long-term contracts.
Conclusion
If you want to be a good writer, then just be you. Be genuine and solve a problem or tell how to do something, throw in a bit of flair, a few pictures and write in short sentences and paragraphs.
You will grow as you go and one day you will look back at your early attempts and probably groan a little. That is fine, you are earning the right of passage.
Because you have not written that first word. there is nothing to look back on.
Peter Hanley and how to create a unique blog
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How to create a unique blog
