Your first blog post is very important and as soon as you start writing your first blog post, you may notice negative feelings like fear and confusion, don’t worry we are here to help you.
It’s quite normal, almost every blogger will tell you that they got mixed feelings while writing their first blog post. You may feel stuck, and even depressed, but don’t worry, this is just a stage that you will pass through successfully.
We wrote this post for you to help you find your way and do only the things that will help you achieve success in your blogging career.
Please read this post to the end as it will help:
- To avoid basic mistakes
- Give you some practical steps to take
- Eliminate your doubt and give you amazing results even with your first post.
Even if you’ve not yet started your blog but you are thinking of doing so, this post will help you.
Before we go into the main topic which is “First blog post”, we feel we should tell you what blogging is and its importance. When you know these, you will understand why your first blog posts and other blog posts are important.
What Is Blogging And The Importance Of Blogging?
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According to Wikipedia, a blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web (www) consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries.
Blogging is the act of adding new materials to a blog or regularly updating a blog. It can also be defined as writing, photography, and other media that is self-published online.
The Benefits Of Blogging
The benefits of blogging are many but here are some of them:
1. Blogging can help you get a better job
A lot of companies check potential employees’ online influence before hiring them. They want you to have a strong online and positive influence.
And guess what? Blogging is the single best way to make this possible and be ahead of your competitors.
2. A blog can help you start a new business
Most of the famous bloggers started their blog as a hobby only for it to become a full-time business.
3. A blog can get more clients for your existing business
You may say, “my business has a website”, well; that is good but static websites do not attract a lot of new clients and customers like blogs. A blog that is updated regularly can bring in a lot of new clients from around the world.
Make sure you publish in-depth posts on your blog that will help your potential clients/customers solve their problems. This will make them trust and respect you, they will see you as an expert in the field and contact you or hire you.
4. A blog helps you become a better writer
The only true way to become a better writer is to write pages and pages of blog posts day after day. This is the work of a blogger and the more you blog, the more you write, and the better you become at writing.
5. You can become a published author
The publishing business has changed, it isn’t what it used to be in the past. Right now, publishers are less likely to give an unknown author a chance.
They prefer to give contracts to an author who already has a built-in audience of readers. This is where having a blog will help you. It makes you a better writer and also makes it fast and easier for you to become a published writer.
6. Gives you immediate feedback
An author has to wait for months to get reviews but bloggers can read the comments their readers leave on the blog the same day they publish their posts.
Blogging is truly a great way to get feedback on any idea you want to develop further. We all know that having a little bit of constructive criticism and an outside perspective is invaluable.
7. You will learn more about a group of people
Bloggers share their ideas and insights but their readers also share a lot with them too. The information you will get from your readers will help you know what type of posts to write on.
Knowing your audience is invaluable and that is why companies spend a lot of time and money testing their products via focus groups.
8. You become an influencer
One of the best ways to change the world is to blog. A quality blog will make you gain a wide audience of people who trust and respect you.
9. You portray yourself as an expert
Nobody gets lots of respect by just saying “I have a website about that”.
But when you have a blog and write more posts and share your expertise, your blog will change from “just another blog” into a powerful demonstration of your knowledge and expertise in the field.
When people visit your blog and see the insights and knowledge you’ve shared on a subject and they also see a community of people who respect and seek that insight, it will be clear to them that you are really an expert in the field.
10. A blog helps you to build a network
It was Robert Kiyosaki who said, “The richest people in the world build networks while everyone else looks for work”. A blog is a guaranteed way to expand your network.
This is how a blog makes it happen;
When you publish valuable and interesting blog posts, you will attract readers that will comment on your blog and send you personal messages through your contact page.
Many of your readers will come asking for help while others will be asking how to help you. A blog is a good way to reach out to others.
You can make your first blog post an interview with experts, by doing that, you will establish a personal relationship with an influential person.
11. You will learn important skills
Easy to use blogging platforms like WordPress have made it easier to blog without knowing computer programming.
However, by blogging, many people have learned some CSS and HTML because it is easier to make minor improvements to your websites by yourself than paying someone to do it.
And the good part about this is that fluency in web design, CSS, and HTML are skills that are highly valued these days. Other blogging skills which bloggers learn over time like graphics design, content marketing, search engine optimization, and social media marketing, are highly valued.
12. Build trust online and get emails
Trust is a rare and valuable commodity online. You can’t buy trust, you have to earn it by demonstrating your commitment to your readers constantly.
The more trust you’ve earned, the more you can achieve your goals online.
Despite all the buzz about social media these days, email remains the most reliable and fastest way of communication. People still check their emails regularly.
It is not easy to get someone to give you their primary email because once you have that, you have a direct connection with them. You will be able to have their attention when you need it.
13. Stay knowledgeable in your field
Having a blog is a powerful incentive to help you keep up to date with the latest information on a certain field. Your weekly target to put up new content will make you research always and search for new information to share with your readers.
14. Express yourself
Your blog is your expressive montage that contains words, sounds, pictures, or videos. It is a powerful form of self-expression.
15. Take control of your online identity
There is a lot of information about you online, whether you are into business or not. You will want to ensure that when anyone searches for you online, they get a complete and accurate picture of who you are, what you do, and what you are all about.
A blog is a great tool to take control of your online identity. All you have to do is to ensure that it is the top result on Google so it makes a good first impression.
16. Make money
This is one of the most important benefits of blogging. You can make a huge amount of money from a blog by displaying ads, selling eBooks or products, and many other ways.
This makes blogging one of the best ways stay-at-home moms and students can make money easily.
If you want to make money from your blog, avoid free blogging platforms.
What Should My First Blog Post Be About
Your first blog post should be on a subject or topic that you know very well more than anything else. And you are the one to choose what to write, not somebody else telling you what to write on.
Note that your first blog post isn’t an introduction about yourself. It has no business being there. Introducing yourself and what you like doing should be saved for your “About” page.
To get your first blog post right; think about why you started this blog in the first place. Ask yourself, “What is the purpose of my blog?”
If you can answer this question honestly and write down the answer(s), you will be able to come up with a wonderful first blog post and other subsequent blog posts that will help your readers. Other questions include:
- Why did I choose to create a blog around this specific subject or category?
- What do I know intimately about this subject or category?
- What is the first thing people want to know about this category or topic?
- How can I help people with my blog? Is it by answering questions, teaching something, or giving tips and tricks?
By answering these questions, you will get a wonderful first blog post. And from here, it is easy to branch out and write about everything else.
How To Write Your First Blog Post
Now that you’ve known the benefits of blogging and what your first blog post should be about, let’s get straight to writing your first blog post.
We are assuming that you already have a domain name, a live blog and you are using paid web hosting. It would be hard to make money as a blogger if you are using a free blogging platform.
Also, your URL won’t look professional in the eyes of your readers and Google will tank your posts thinking it is a hobby blog and this will make it difficult to get organic traffic from the web.
Back to writing your first blog post!
Writing your first blog post can be daunting if you don’t know where to start.
But this guide that we’ve put together can help you overcome every challenge and make your first blog post a success.
1. Go to Google
Type the subject you are going to write about in the search box. As you are typing, a drop-down menu will appear, these are Google’s suggestions.
This drop-down menu is showing you the top searches on the internet. It is what people look for the most in your category. This is a great way to get your first blog post topic and subsequent topics as you start blogging.
2. Look for related searches
If you have completed a search on your chosen subject or topic, scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will find more searches related to your subject or topic.
You can throw these in your post to help you rank high in searches.
3. Start writing
By now, you should have built up a list of words and questions to build your blog posts with. So, it is time to start writing.
Before you start writing/typing, here are a few tips to guide you, keep them in mind and make sure you incorporate them into your writings, it will make your reader’s experience more enjoyable.
- Just write
Don’t think too much, just start writing. Sitting on something for too long will not yield any positive result, it will even make you feel as if you suck at writing.
Ignore that self-sabotaging voice and put pen to paper, or better put; fingers to keypads.
- Write short paragraphs
Most people like to scan and not read, writing in short paragraphs will make your content scan-able. A blog post should be read with ease and shouldn’t need a high level of focus and commitment.
- Add graphics and images
This will make your blog posts more engaging and even easy to understand. Human beings are visual beings. Graphics and images will also help to break up a page thereby encouraging your readers to scroll down.
- Look for grammatical errors
After writing, read your blog post again and search for grammatical errors. If your post has a lot of grammatical errors, it will look unprofessional in the eyes of your readers.
Google algorithm can pick up on these errors and tank your posts.
There are software or websites that can help you search for grammatical errors, some are free and some are paid for. Grammarly is one of these software.
- Ask yourself every question you can about your subject
Read your blog post and find answers that you don’t know. Then look for a way to incorporate these answers into your post.
- Break your posts into sections using H2 tags
Take a look at this post as an example. We broke down the questions that seem to come up a lot in searches. We used these questions as subjects to create our posts around.
This helps to make our writings a lot easier and less intimidating.
- Use links in your posts
Put links to authority blogs you trust in your posts. You should also put internal links (from your blog) in your posts. This will boost your SEO.
I know you may be thinking, “but this is my first blog post, I don’t have internal links yet”. Well, you can insert your ‘contact me’ page or ‘about’ page.
- Hit publish
Don’t listen to that self-sabotaging voice inside. Click the publish button right away.
Where To Write Your First Blog Post
We will be showing you some writing tools you can use to write your first blog post and other subsequent blog posts. Here are six common writing tools you can use.
1. WordPress
You can write your blog articles here if your blog is powered by WordPress. It is less complicated and makes things easy for bloggers.
WordPress is one of the best writing tools to start with as a beginner. However, you can still copy into WordPress regardless of any writing tool you use.
2. Google Docs
One thing we love about Google Docs is that you can also store your content here and don’t have to worry about it getting lost.
It is also easy to collaborate with others, you can easily invite anyone to check your work and even edit it for you.
Another advantage of Google Docs is that you can use add-on tools to make your writing easier and more professional. Add-on tools you can use on your Google Doc are Grammarly which checks your grammar, punctuations, and spellings as you write.
The second add-on is SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant. It will give you keyword suggestions you can include in your article to get more traffic from search engines.
3. CoSchedule
This is a great writing tool for bloggers but it can be a bit expensive for those just starting out. It manages all of your projects in one place, like your content, email marketing, social media, and many more.
CoSchedule is a great writing tool and it is available as a WordPress Plugin too.
4. Kajabi
Kajabi is more than a writing tool, it has many powerful features to support your blog and business.
You can use it to host all of your online courses, landing pages, membership sites, and even online stores.
You can sell digital products and build a blog with kajabi but it will replace your monthly hosting cost and WordPress.
5. MicroSoft Word
This is the writing tool of choice for most bloggers out there because they are familiar with it. This is the tool almost everyone uses to write their assignments and projects in school.
However, you have to be careful when copying from MicroSoft Word and pasting into WordPress, the formatting doesn’t always transfer correctly.
We advise that you paste your blog posts on the HTML side and not on the visual editor.
6. Evernote
This is another popular writing tool. It has 2 main benefits, first, it can be accessed either online or offline. This means you can work on your blog posts even if you are flying on a plane without internet access.
Later, when you have access to the internet, your document will automatically sync with the cloud.
Secondly, you can share your document easily with others. it is similar to Google Docs where you share a link to your notebook in Evernote and collaborate with others to get perfect work.
How To Get People To Read Your First Blog Post
Now, your first blog post is live, you have to tell everyone about it.
1. Share your links on all your social media channels
If you have social media accounts, share your links on all the accounts you have and if you don’t, it is important you open accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
You can even open a Pinterest account using your blog’s name and logo. The sooner you do this, the better, as it will help get many eyes on your posts.
2. Submit your blog’s URL to Bing and Google
This will ensure that your first blog post and other subsequent posts get listed on search engines and pages. Don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen right away, getting a post indexed can take months, especially in the beginning.
3. Ask your friends and family members for help
You can ask them to help you share your first blog post on their social media or tell their friends and co-workers about it. Don’t be shy or afraid to ask, you have published something great, the whole world has to know about it.
4. Share your first blog post on Pinterest using Tailwind
Pinterest is another good source of organic traffic. It is the next biggest search engine on the web after Google and YouTube.
And the best part about Pinterest is that you don’t need thousands of followers to get lots of organic traffic.
A pin is 100 times more spreadable than a tweet or a Facebook share.
And your traffic will never stop coming in completely because your images are constantly being shared. When you compare this to the shelf life of a tweet (25 minutes) and a Facebook post (less than 2 hours), you will see why almost every blogger is adding Pinterest to their marketing campaign.
To get a good flow of traffic, you must be pinning consistently and Tailwind will help you accomplish these since it can take hours to accomplish.
5. Share your posts on Reddit
This is another easy way to get traffic to your blog. Create an account with Reddit and click on submit a new link, pick the category your post falls under and click post.
Then you wait and see if your post gets shared. This doesn’t work often, but when it does, you can get hundreds or thousands of views in one day.
6. Add social share buttons
You can add these social share buttons above and below your posts to encourage your readers to share your posts.
The easiest way to do this is to use a plugin that adds social share buttons at the top and bottom of your post. There are lots of these plugins and if you want us to recommend one for you, we suggest Social Warefare.
You will like the way the buttons look and they are not too intrusive. This plugin is also light therefore, it won’t slow down your blog’s speed when your pages are loading.
And the best part of it is that it takes less than a minute to set up.
Conclusion
We hope this guides you in overcoming any challenge and writing your first blog post. We wish you success and if you need help or want to ask questions, you are free to contact us.
Happy blogging!
