Before we dive into how to start a blog and what it takes to maintain a good and readable blog, we really want to show you something.
If your goal is to start a blog that you want to reach as many readers as possible, this guide has put together some tips on how to do it.
We are currently working on a blog dedicated exclusively to shih tzu dogs. When we first started the blog we developed a content marketing strategy and website strategy which has resulted in 6000 visitors in 6 months .
With shihtzuguide.dk we have managed to fulfill our goal, and that is to provide current, relevant and good content, while ensuring a good user experience on the website.
But can everyone copy the same strategy and use the same techniques and content for their blog?
Yes.
There are no definitive answers on how to run a blog. We certainly don’t think so. We’ve just found our methods and strategies have evolved in a positive direction, and we want to share that with our readers.
If we can do it, you can too. All it takes is a plan to be followed firmly and constantly … and a bit of luck.
Getting 6000 visitors in 6 months takes hard work.
We even started where you are now. The only difference between our blog and your blog is that we have been constantly working on shihtzuguide.dk and optimizing it for the last several months.
We’ve found out a lot of things (both good and bad) and encountered a lot of challenges that we’d like to share with you in this blog post.
This blog post will share all the lessons we have learned since we started shihtzuguide.dk and how we have achieved our goals.
Start a blog
It doesn’t take a creative or revolutionary idea to start a successful blog. But your blog must be specific and unique in the sense that it focuses on a given topic.
When it comes to choosing what your blog will be about, think about a niche in the industry you want to write about. That is, you must answer these two questions:
- Do I find the topic interesting to write about?
- Are other people interested in what I want to write about?
These are two key questions you need to answer. If the answer to both questions is a resounding YES, you’re off to a great start.
If, on the other hand, the answer is YES and NO or vice versa, there is no real reason to write about the subject. Unless you don’t want to make money from the blog or just want to have a blog for the hobby. And there must be room for that.
Your personal interest in the subject is important, and the interest of others is equally important.
To find the answer to whether others are interested in the topic or whether the topic is “trendy”, it doesn’t take more than a Google search.
As you can see, typing the word Shih tzu dogs into the Google search engine brings up 2,480,000 million results.
However, as we mentioned earlier, it is important that your blog is about something specific and that it is not too broad.
For example, if you want to blog about film, avoid blogging about film, but choose a specific topic that falls under film, such as “screenwriting” or “American films”.
Choose a name for your new blog
The name of your blog is how your readers will remember you. But don’t overthink it either.
The best way to come up with a creative blog name is to brainstorm and research your competitors’ names. Then put together your own.
We therefore recommend that you open a document and write down all your competitors’ names.
Spend time combining the words until you hit on a name that sounds good to your ears.
Aim to have 4-7 potential names written down in the document, as it is not always certain that all names are available.
Now you need to check if these names are available and if they can be used as a domain.
You can check which domain names are available at simply.com.
For example, shihtzuguide.dk is the domain name of our blog.
Shih tzu is the breed the blog specifically writes about, but it is also our brand. That is, when our readers type shihtzuguiden.dk into the URL field, they find us. This also means that no one else can use our domain name.
There are many other blogs that also use their personal names. It helps to reinforce the person’s own brand, rather than the product or service, as people remember the blog by his/her personal name.
But of course, you choose and decide what you want people to remember about your blog.
If you didn’t already know, here are some tips and advice to remember when buying a domain name:
- Always choose .dk (depends of course on the product)
- Avoid numbers, slashes and unknown characters
- Keep it as short and concise as possible
- Must be understandable
- Avoid proofreading errors
- Do not use æ, ø and å. It just makes life easier.
We’ve written much more about choosing a domain in our guide to making your own website. Here you can read more about which domains are best to choose in terms of. SEO and which platforms are safest to buy domains over.
Find the right blog platform in 2021 (comparisons)
We know it can be hard to choose between all the different blog platforms on the market today.
So how do you find the right blogging platform?
In this guide, we’ll try to help you find the right blog platform for you. You will read about which blog platforms are best for beginners and go through the pros and cons of each of these blog platforms.
Before we go through all the platforms, it’s important that you’ve decided what you expect from the platform.
If you’re a beginner, it’s important to find a blog platform that’s easy to change, not too difficult to learn on and requires no coding skills.
You’ll also need to think about where you see your blog in two, three or five years’ time. As your blog grows, you may want to look for a new look and add more features. Therefore, it is crucial to choose a platform that is flexible.
But enough about that. Let’s see which blog platforms are the best match for your skills.
Here are the most popular blog platforms in 2021. In this guide, we’ll compare five of the most commonly used blog platforms:
- WordPress
- WIX
- SquareSpace
- Blogger
WordPress
Let’s start with WordPress.
WordPress is currently the most popular blog platform.
Over 400 million people visit WordPress sites every month.
If you want to have full control over your blog, WordPress is an obvious choice. WordPress allows you to set up your own website – according to your wishes – and add content.
Benefits:
- Easy and full control of the website
- Beginner friendly
- You have access to thousands of free (and paid) plugins. Plugins are important and necessary additions to your blog, such as contact form, comment field, social media sharing, images.
- WordPress is an SEO friendly blog software. You have the possibility to change URLs, create categories, add images, create meta descriptions etc.
- You can easily set up Google Analytics in WordPress. WordPress allows its users to set up Google Analytics via various plugins.
- You have all kinds of resources, knowledge and material available on the internet.
Disadvantages:
- Can take time to learn (if you are not trained in WordPress)
Price:
WordPress is free, but it is necessary for you to have a domain and hosting. However, you have the option to create a free site with domain and hosting via WordPress.com.
WIX
WIX is another popular platform to build your own website on.
The platform is built on a “drag-drop” concept, which means that it is suitable for people who have no coding experience, but want instead to drag, place and drop elements with the mouse on a website.
You can easily build a blog website with WIX.
Benefits:
- Easy and full control of the website
- Beginner friendly
- You can easily customize and adjust your website with “drag and drop” elements. The platform is built for beginners.
- Implementation is easy and fast
Disadvantages:
- The free version of WIX is limited
- Once you’ve chosen a theme for your blog, you can’t change it back
Price:
WIX has a free version to build your website on.
WIX also offers four different paid packages.
| VIP | Unlimited (the most popular) | Combo | Connect Domain |
| 180 kr. | 90 kr. | 60 kr. | 30 kr. |
SquareSpace
SquareSpace was founded in 2003 and since then has built millions of websites.
The platform is also – like the blog platforms mentioned above – built on the “drag-drop” concept, which is an easy drag and drop tool.
SquareSpace aims to help small businesses who want to build a website.
Benefits:
- Simple and easy to use for beginners.
- Beautiful and professional themes
Disadvantages:
- Limited by functions and features
- Limited by integrations outside SquareSpace
Price:
SquareSpace has different price packages.
| Staff | Business | Commerce(Basic) | Commerce(Advanced) |
| 75 kr. | 110 kr. | 160 kr. | 250 kr. |
Blogger
Blogger is a free blogging platform offered by Google. Blogger is particularly suitable for people who have no programming experience.
To create a Blogger blog platform, you need a Google account.
Benefits:
- Blogger is free
- Easy and simple to use
Disadvantages:
- Limited blog features
- Limited design options with the blog
Price:
Blogger is a free blogging platform.
What blog platforms should you choose?
Our recommendation is without a doubt WordPress.
Of course, there are a lot of platforms out there today – due to the huge interest in blog posts and content – but our experience is that WordPress is and will be an indispensable tool when writing blog posts.
We at shihtzuguide.dk have always used WordPress. The reason for this is that WordPress has been easy to use from day one. All the bonuses that come with having your blog on WordPress, such as plugins and knowledge of the web, make your job much easier.
If you decide not to use WordPress, you’ll soon realise that it’s worse and more expensive in the long run, because WordPress offers so many free plugins that allow you to customise your blog in all sorts of shapes and colours.
Even if you’re not into digital and IT, you can install WordPress in under 5 minutes. It’s that simple. WordPress is designed to help everyone on their way to an easier blogging journey, even for non-technical people.
If you need help installing WordPress, we’ve written a more in-depth step-by-step guide on how.
SEO blog
Content must be built around SEO.
Otherwise, there’s no point in writing content if your customers/readers can’t find you.
There are some essential tools that need to be included in your blog. We will go through each tool.
Let’s look at them together.
Yoast this blog
Yoast seo is a tool that helps you make your texts more SEO-friendly.
The tool itself does nothing. It won’t bring more visitors to your site or make your pages rank better. No. But if you use the tool as a complement to your texts, it can open many doors for your business.
When working with a WordPress website, the Yoast SEO plugin is one of the most important tools you can install. It’s safe to say that it’s perhaps one of the most popular WordPress plugins on the market, and for good reason.
Whether you’re a day-to-day SEO consultant or just starting out with a personal blog, Yoast is an easy-to-use tool.
Yoast SEO is a plugin that can be installed on a WordPress website, and best of all, it’s free. You have the option to purchase Yoast SEO premium, which gives you more SEO benefits and additional features. However, we believe that the most important features are included in the basic package, which is free.
Yoast makes it easy for you to control your blog posts’ meta descriptions, titles, set targeted keywords, manage sitemaps and more.
Sitemap
Google is pretty good at scanning all our pages and finding out what they’re about. In this way, Google can connect the pages and create an overview of the website’s purpose.
But quite often, some pages are started and partially finished, or the content of the page is outdated, and so they remain on the site while Google scans them.
Using sitemaps and a concept called “noindexing”, we can actually tell Google which pages to scan and which pages are outdated/partially finished.
Explained in simple terms, the sitemap is a document in which all pages on your website are listed. That is, a complete list of all URLs on your website.
We “submit” this sitemap document to Google through a tool called Google Search Console.
Enough about sitemaps. Now about “Noindexing”.
Noindexing is another form of communication between you (the blog owner) and Google.
Noindexing is short codes placed in the header section of a page to communicate to Google that this page should not be scanned.
They are especially useful if you have two pages of the same content. You can also use “Noindexing” to tell Google which of these two pages not to scan.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Web Masters, is a free program for checking technical errors, links and more. The programme itself also offers reports on how high your pages are ranked and how many people click on them.
Once you’ve created a Google Search Console account, you’ll be greeted by a bunch of reports. These reports basically show how your website is performing on the search results. It could be anything from how good the mobile user experience is on your website, or how many clicks your pages get on average.
If you’re serious about your blog, Google Search Console is a data centre full of gold. This is where all the data goes in, so you can better understand your blog posts and what you need to do better.
If you’re not sure how to set up a Google Search Console account, drop us a line here: we@tribemedia.dk . We’d love to help you create an account that’s flawless from day one.
