Blogging for Non-Bloggers

A step by step guide for starting your first blog, whether it's a personal one or one for your business.

It seems like today everyone is a blogger of some sort. You may be wondering, how did they start?  Whether you want to do it for your personal benefit, your business, or a little bit of both, we are here to 100% support you.

Although building a blog on your own sounds like a daunting task, it is truthfully quite easy. Even if you are not tech savvy, programs like Wordpress and SquareSpace make constructing a website a breeze.

Why Start Writing?

There are so many reasons to start your own blog. First off, it will help perfect your writing. A 10-year study of LinkedIn profiles by Grammarly (2013) found promotions came to those who made 45% fewer mistakes in their profiles. So,  starting your own blog now & becoming a more proficient writer can one day help you land that big promotion.

Speaking of LinkedIn, writing a blog is an exceptional resume booster! Being able to show your passion for something adds character. It also establishes you as an authority, since you educate yourself to write new material. That helps a lot if you have hopes of taking your interest to a professional level. If you are looking to turn your blog into a profession, then you need to constantly be turning out new content.

And the more you blog, the better you get. It can even work out to be an additional stream of income, if you set up ads and promote your site well enough to get more traffic! Extra money never hurts.

Plus, writing a blog is a fun activity that allows you to open up your mind and let your creativity out in a constructive way.

How to Start Writing

Okay, so you are convinced, but how do you get the ball rolling? Well, like we said, there are several impressive programs that make it remarkably easy to begin such as WordPress & Squarespace. Many programs even have a free trial period where you can play with the layouts, posts, and interface.

Once you have chosen a program, then selecting a topic for your blog is the next step. A financial advisor once gave me advice about picking stocks. He said, “pick stocks from companies in an industry you are interested in.” I would offer the same advice with choosing a blog topic. If you want to expand your knowledge or become a professional in the field, this is an excellent way to do it. On the flipside of things, if you want to become more proficient in a new subject then there is no better way to learn about it than writing about it.

After that, the biggest key to success we can provide is to stick with it. It only takes about an hour a week to write a blog post. At first, don’t worry about being seen as an authority on the topic. Everyone starts somewhere!  Just have fun and remember it is mostly about self-development, but hopefully, you can educate someone else along the way. 

Where to Promote Your Work

Just the same, you won’t likely become an authority overnight. It takes time to get people to notice your blog and to want to come back. An excellent way to help this is, of course, social media. Talking and engaging with people in the topics you write on is a wonderful way to learn more about trends and then talk about your site.

We believe the three best social media tools for promoting your site are Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.

Twitter - It is very easy to engage with new people, find groups, and with programs like Hootsuite you can schedule posts about your articles to go out all day. Twitter is also perfect for catching up on new trends and seeing what other people are blogging about in your genre. We even have this guide for gathering new followers.

Tumblr - Appropriately it is a microblogging site, so it is easy to take snippets from your work and post them. Unfortunately, Tumblr doesn’t draw nearly as much traffic as the others.

Instagram -  Writing is obviously the focus of this article but pictures add the proverbial worth of 1,000 words that people wouldn’t want to read. Adding photos to your pieces keeps readers active. With Instagram you can post those pictures and add links into your captions to bring them to your blog. Our tip is to post the link in the Bio section where a website would normally go.

Get Out There and Write Away!

A lot of exceptional things can come from only taking that first step and writing your first blog piece. Building your resume, networking, bettering your skill at social media, or even earning a few extra dollars are all potential rewards from hard work. Regardless, being a good writer is a talent that is never going to lose its importance in life. So have fun, get writing, and good luck - you can do it!

Media Design & Marketing (MDM) is an advertising agency focused on providing clients immediate results and long-term branding. We equip companies with the right mix of broadcast and digital solutions.