How to start a blog
Before you start a blog it’s very important to understand the essential parts that hold it together. In my previous post we talked about building a solid foundation, and from that foundation we will build the walls brick by brick. So, once again I apologise to those of you who know the very basics of starting a blog but we’ve all been at the very beginning at some point, and let’s face it, the mother of all learning is repetition, and there could just possibly be a very small point that some of you missed in the early stages, that could make all the difference at the more advanced levels of blogging.
Understanding the essential parts in order to start a blog
A typical blog for marketing purposes would include pages and posts. Pages usually remain static once set up, whilst posts are regular pieces of valuable information, delivered on a regular basis to your target market, providing solutions to their problems. When you start a blog it’s important to remember that page navigaton runs across your website from left to right, whilst posts run down and appear in chronological order.
The page titles below would be the bare mimimum to include across the navigation of your site. Have a look at mine and you will see what I mean. You’ll notice I have other pages as well but these can be added over time, the main thing is to get the basic ones up first.
- Home
- About
- Contact me
- Work with me
You can’t start a blog and miss out this key element
When you start a blog with the intention of building a presence online you will need a way of capturing people’s name and email address. The way we do this is to have something called an opt-in box usually on the right side of all your pages and posts. This is just a simple box that has two fields, one for their name and the other for their email address. People won’t normally leave their details unless you give them a good reason to do so. This could be a free report, a free video, or perhaps a newsletter shown here, but whatever you provide it must be something that would be considered valuable to your target market.
In the next post I’ll be showing you how to create a blog. In the meantime, if you are looking to start a blog and want any help or advice over and above what we’re covering so far, then please leave your questions in the box below.