6 Things to Master Before Starting a Blog

You can do a lot of things on WordPress—build your website, sell your products, and blog about your successes and adventures. Blogging is one of the most fruitful endeavors you’ll ever make, and it can bring you or your business great success if done right. However, there are some ground rules you should understand before venturing into the blogging realm.

1. Study Top Niche Blogs

Before you begin writing a blog, you’ll need to know what a successful blog looks like. In order to do that, take the time to study some of the most popular blogs in your field. The best way to do this is to search for the top blogs in a certain industry, and then look for blogs that have won awards.

For example, if you’re in the art industry, you might benefit from Park West Gallery’s blog, which was named as a Top Arts Blog by the Daily Reviewer. If you’re looking to do a health-related blog, you might check out “Oh She Glows,” a blog devoted to healthier eating that won the “Best Health and Diet Cooking Blog award.”

 2.Understand the Power of a Domain

Owning your own domain can be extremely helpful for increasing credibility and getting your blog out there. It’s always a good idea to use a paid-hosted domain. It’s an even better idea to use a self-hosted domain on a website such as WordPress, which means that you have complete control over the content, the types of ads, and the amount of themes and plugins, with support and freedom of use.

3. Integrate Social Media

Being social is one of the most important aspects of blogging. It’s the way that you get social shares, attract clients and customers, and create brand recognition. A successful social media strategy involves using a variety of social media networks and engaging with followers.

Furthermore, every blog should have its own Facebook page, according to Mashable. “Even with Facebook’s new subscription feature, there’s still merit to giving your blog its own space on Facebook…Plus, readers who don’t know your name but know the name of your blog can search for it on Facebook.”

4. Make Key Connections Early

Blogging is not a solitary endeavor, even though you might be blogging from the solitary comfort of your home. Blogging involves making key connections with important players in your niche and in surrounding niches, holding conversations with them, and interacting daily. The best way to connect with these players is through social media, subscribing to their blogs, utilizing their blog posts, and enlisting their help in making your blog successful.

5. Use Responsive Blog Design

Both websites and blogs must be responsive if you want to be successful in 2015. According to Visually, 90 percent of consumers use multiple devices sequentially, and 66 percent said that they get extremely frustrated at the slow page loading times when they switch to different devices. For that reason, give your followers something to smile about instead of frown about. Give them a blog that can be read on any device, whenever they want.

6. Set Up Security

The last thing you might be thinking about before building a blog are the security features. Even if you aren’t accepting personal payment information on your blog, the fact of the matter is that your blog could be a hacker’s quickest route to the rest of your company where they can take private information.

If you want to have adequate security on your blog, be sure to keep backups of all of your information, use a great security plugin, and have a number you can call for support. Keeping your blogs and all the information attached to it safe is one of the most important things you can do for a successful blog in 2015.