With so much attention on social media content on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, it may easily seem like good old blogs just aren’t around as much anymore. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as there still exist many blogs that are widely popular, which dedicated fans religiously follow. Fantastic blogs enrich people’s lives with rich content that cater to people’s personal interests, whether that be fashion, travel, cooking, technology and everything else under the sun. But of course, creating a successful high-quality blog takes lots of time and dedication to stand out in the vast ocean that is the internet. Follow our top tips for how to create a winning blog in 2020.
1. Consistency is key
Consistency is the number one key to any successful blog. Consistency in style. Consistency in content. And most importantly, consistency in publishing new content. Uploading new content on a regular basis is essential to keeping your blog alive. Decide on the frequency that you’ll be debuting new content. Whether it’s once a week, twice a week, or every day, choose the days on which you’ll regularly publish content and commit to it!
If you’re thinking about starting a blog, create at least 10 blog posts that are ready-to-publish before your website actually goes live. This way, you’ll have a stockpile of saved content for weeks when you’re unable to create a new post without falling behind schedule.
2. Know yourself, and then your audience
It goes without saying that you must clearly establish what the identity of your blog will be. What is the tone and personality that you want to communicate? Do you want people to see you as a knowledgeable authority or their new best friend?
After you establish your blog’s identity and visitors start to come to your website, get to know your audience. Which blog posts do they flock to? What type of content do they respond to the most? How do they find your blog? Tracking statistics on WordPress or Google Analytics will greatly help you determine where your audience is based, how they arrived at your website, their age and gender, etc.
Maintaining a close, personal relationship with your audience means staying true to who you are while responding to your audience’s needs.
3. Give the people something they’re searching for in their lives
You need to give people a reason to type in your blog’s URL in the search bar and come back to your website time and time again. In order to do this, your blog needs to give people something they’re searching for in their lives, whether that’s joy, comfort, inspiration or useful information. Keep this in mind whenever you are producing any type of content. If your blog isn’t providing something people are actively looking for in their lives, they won’t have a reason to regularly come back to your blog for new content.
4. Keep it simple
If you haven’t noticed, the best blogs often have themes with simple and minimalistic design. Similarly, when you’re designing your blog, choose a theme that’s simple that will direct viewers’ attention to the content. Make sure your blog’s logo is easy to read and visible from every page. The font should be easy to read as well and consistent across all of the pages in your website.
5. Commit to a social media routine
Once you’ve set up and launched your beautiful blog, it’s time to tell the world through social media. Promoting your content through social media can be a full-time job of its own. It can be extremely overwhelming with all of the different platforms available to us and the amount of time it takes to effectively set up a brand presence on each one. That’s why you should choose just one or two social media platforms that make the most sense for your brand and commit to a regular routine of posting on those networks.
If you have a photography blog, then obviously Instagram is the social media platform to go to, but if you have a cooking blog, YouTube might make more sense to share recipe videos. Set up a schedule of posting regularly on your social media accounts to promote your blog posts as well as other content related to your topic. Also dedicate some time to engaging with other content creators within your category who will help you increase your brand presence inside their online community.
