Blogging Tips For Beginners: 10 Things To Keep In Mind

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy for more info

Blogging is one of the best things that can happen to anybody. Getting to express your opinion on certain subjects while providing value to others is simply awesome. And if you’re just starting out, here is me saying a big welcome on board to you! Today I’d like to share some of my best blogging tips for beginners so you can avoid some of the mistakes I made.

Starting a blog could leave several questions of “How To?” hanging in your mind and it can be pretty worrying. But relax, I’ve got you. Discard your worries and let’s get right into 10 blogging tips for beginners.

1. Choose the right niche

Now that you’re a blogger, choosing a niche for your blog is almost like finding Mr/Mrs Right for your blog. Of course, this depends on what your goals are with your blog. I’m going to assume most of you want to actually make money with your blog.

So, when choosing a niche for your blog, you have to keep two things in mind. The first one is to make sure you have an audience for it. The other is to be certain your niche of choice is the one you’re passionate about.

It’s more like striking a balance between having the ability to provide help and having people who are in actual need of the help you’re providing.

For instance, you might decide to start a blog on makeup and other artificial beauty tips. However, suppose it’s an era where most people fancy a natural skin glow and face beat is usually looked down upon, then you might want to rethink your topic.

Don’t get me wrong, your passion for your niche of choice is going to be your blog’s driving force, but what is a blog without its readers? You have to provide value to people if you want a successful blog. And that brings us to the second commandment in this list of blogging tips for beginners.

2. Understand your audience, draw ideas from them

N.B This blogging tip is not only for beginning bloggers. You can always make use of this even if you’ve been running the show for a while. A great rule to follow is to get acquainted with your audience.

Now that you have your blog up and running, it’s good to take a chill pill and not get lost in the excitement that comes with it. Don’t lose sight of the fact that your blog is more about your readers and less about you.

The primary goal is to offer solutions, educate and inform your audience (let the money making ideas come later). However, the most effective way to communicate with your audience is by listening to them.

It will give you an idea of your readers’ preferences. Make use of your social handles, analytics, surveys and even email to know which content your readers would like (actually ask them).

Don’t just jump for joy when you start getting feedback and reviews on your content; go through them, handle criticisms well and work on your content strategy.

3. Prioritise your email list

This should make it to the top 3 items on every bloggers to do list.

As a beginner, you might not be planning on selling anything yet, but having an email list will help you promote new content on your blog to your audience directly without worrying about search rankings. It will also help you to build a connection with your audience, and over time they will begin to know you better and trust you more.

Also, ensure you do not neglect your email list. When your readers subscribe to your email list, don’t just let those emails gather dust – actually email them. Even if it’s just to introduce yourself and inform them of new posts. You want to keep that connection alive.

Prioritising your email lists is not just an option, it’s a necessity. It might seem not to have a lot of usefulness to you right now, but your future self will thank you for it.

I’m currently using Convertkit for building my email list and it’s really easy to use. You can now also get up to 1000 free subscribers on the free plan.

4. Don’t forget the catchy headlines

When writing content for your blog, there’s basically one thing that will determine your readers’ engagement – your headlines! While writing, you have to keep in mind that people have a split second to decide if they should click on your post, and here, your headline calls the shots.

Even if you are a good content writer, if your headline is not catchy enough, you will seldom have an audience for it.

Let’s take for instance, you go to the bakery to get a cake and you come across a roughly dressed one and nice looking icing on another, I’m sure you’d go for the nice looking cake even if the baker says the roughly dressed cake is better.

Here, cake is the content while the icing is your headline, so make sure it’s appealing.

Also, the headline is important in making it easy and desirable for your readers to refer to and share your posts with others. Ensure you keep your headlines SPUB: simple, powerful, useful and bold!

5. Keep it Short, Interesting and Straight to the point

It’s great to have a catchy headline but it’s not enough. Working out the perfect length for your blog posts and keeping your readers’ attention at the same time can be tricky but not impossible.

Although sites like WordPress have got no maximum word count, it’s best that you always strive for quality over quantity when writing content for your blog.

I won’t tell you that your posts have to be a certain number of words. Your post should only contain what is necessary in order to provide value to your readers. Don’t add fluff to your post just to make it longer – your readers will get bored and click away.

Keep your posts interesting, concise and straight to the point.

6. Your Call to Action (CTA)

A call-to-action is an invitation for your readers to take a certain action after checking out your blog post. They can come in the form of beautifully-designed or simple buttons, or well-written lines of text at the bottom or in the body of your blog posts.

An effective call to action usually acts as a logical extension of your blog posts. A useful blogging tip for beginners is to ensure that a precise call to action is included in your blog posts.

Your call to action will determine how your readers interact and engage your posts.

Nate Contny, the founder of Daft said, “Don’t rely on people to do the work to find your Twitter account. Don’t rely on them to do the work to find your details in a sidebar. People are blind to sidebars. Finish your blog post with some kind of call to action to signup for an email list or follow you on Twitter. When I started doing this, I immediately increased my Twitter followers by 335% in the first 7 days.”

So that’s it, the better your call to action is, the more engagement, reviews and feedback you’ll get.

7. Hold a give away

Your audience is one of the best business assets to invest in as a blogger. And one of the best blogging tips for beginners is to do a give away.

Now I’m not asking you to start sharing dollar bills all over the internet in order to impress your audience. Lol, no. It can be something as simple as giving your first digital product away for free to 1 or 2 lucky subscribers.

Giving away some content that would enrich people’s lives wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. In fact, research has shown that blogs that post giveaway contests get about 125% more email subscribers. Awesome, yeah?

They will not only love and appreciate it, they might even refer you to other people and boom! You just gained a couple more loyal fans.

8. Be well organised

Now, it’s time to take your time management resolutions more seriously. I know you are your own boss here and you call the shots now.

But you have to be careful or else your independence might just leave you hanging between lack of productivity and a dead empty blog.

Ensure you manage your time well. A good tip is to plan ahead and always have some content ready ahead of time.

I like to use Sundays to plan my week ahead so I know which day I’ll be working on what. I put it on my calendar and then follow through and actually DO what I planned to do each day. Even if I don’t feel like it in the moment.

Make a commitment to yourself and your blog. If you plan ahead and follow through on your plan, you’ll be well on your way to having a successful blog – and online business!

9. Consistency Matters

If you are into the ‘want to be successful overnight’ kind of cruise, I’m sorry to say you just boarded the wrong ship.

Blogging takes time and as a beginner, you have got to take a chill pill with it. But if you are consistent with your blog and don’t give up, you will eventually get there.

Ensure you are patient and consistent with your blog, and make sure you post articles that are relevant to your niche of choice. Keep your blog posts regular (I’d say at least once a week), interact with your readers, review feedback, and you will be just fine.

10. Be You

Last but not the least, this remains one of the key blogging tips for beginners. Blogging requires a 100% when it comes to originality.

Be true to yourself. Listen to your inner voice, focus on your ideas, your thoughts and opinions and know how to put it into writing.

There is not one specific set of rules to be successful in blogging and if you take a look at the most successful bloggers, you will notice that they are different and unique in their own ways. So whatever you do, be you!

Final thoughts

If you read till this point, here’s a digital high five. Blogging can seem overwhelming especially when you’re just starting out. But my advice is to just take it one step at a time. Don’t focus on all the different things you have to do – break it down. Choose one area to work on each day and stick to it. Pretty soon you will see everything fall into place and see how your blog grows! I can’t wait for it to happen for you!