There many others running blogs on personal development type themes. It’s a great topic that allows one to share hard earned advice, as well as know you are helping others. It can also make money if that is your goal. This article is going to share some advice, whether you are thinking about running a personal development blog or already doing so.
Identify Your Goals
The first thing is be very clear on your goals. Are you doing it only to make money? Or do make a name for yourself? Or just to express yourself and help others? It can be more than one goal, however if you don’t know your goals, you are more likely to flounder. Then break those goals down into more specific objectives. For example if you want to make money, do you envision selling a product of your own? Selling someone else’s product? Selling advertising?
Determine Your Blogging Platform
Be sure you are settling on a domain name and blogging platform that will serve your long-term needs. Once you start your blog, it can be very disruptive and difficult to change these. It may be tempting to just jump on the first free blogging option you see, however will that grow with you? What about performance of your site, do you want to be on a shared host where performance may vary depending on traffic to other customers? Do you want full administrative rights over your blog? What about full administrative rights over the server? Are you able to add plug-ins and buy a better theme? WordPress is probably your safest choice but often best to host it yourself. We use Knownhost which has been very reliable. Seek advice and assistance if needed.
Content is King
This old phrase is certainly true. Nobody will want to read your blog or come back if the writing is not compelling enough, structured poorly or has poor English. If you don’t have the skills, consider getting help from an editor and learn over time. Find good topics and put a unique twist on it rather than blog on basic concepts most have heard before. Make it interesting if possible by sharing things from your own life. Add photos where possible, allow interaction with comments. Do your research, educate yourself thoroughly and make citations and links where possible, and readers will value it more. Consider a specialized niche that you are less likely to be competing in.
Getting Visitors
This is perhaps the hardest part of all and the most likely to cause you to give up. You should realize that you’ll be competing with many others doing the same thing, many of whom will be more experienced and have more resources at their disposal. It comes down to your goals. If your goal is not about making an income right away, then just relax and appreciate even a few visitors. It may take years to attract even a small following. This is where marketing comes in, whether you like it or not. There are many ways to market and is beyond the scope of this article to go into detail, however methods include participation in forums and blogs, paid advertising, search engine traffic, product sponsorship, list building, and free giveaways.
Search Engine Optimization
This should be touched on because it’s one of the hardest but also one of the best. Hard because you’re in stiff competition to be ranked well in Google and other search engines. Best because it’s free, permanent traffic. The art of search engine optimization is beyond the scope of this article but needs to be studied and practiced. You should carefully consider whether to invest in SEO Specialists that can help you get off to a good start. Poor SEO at the beginning can take a long time to fix after Google indexes your site. Do it right from the start. I recommend insisting on white hat SEO from a reputable firm. Some SEO companies use questionable tactics like link farms and forum spamming that are not long term and could do more harm than good.
In conclusion, personal development blogging can be rewarding, but you don’t want to underestimate what it takes to be successful and fail to plan and implement successfully.