20 Important Things to Know Before Starting a Blog in 2024

Starting a blog for the first time is an amazing experience. At the same time, these important things before starting a blog are necessary to learn.

Blogging is once more like diary writing where people share their thoughts, experience, or knowledge with readers just for the sake of sharing information.

But now, the level of Blogging is so high that it has become a giant tool in marketing. It’s because a major portion of the online sale is happening through blogging.

And more people have started blogging with the motive to earn money. Yes, you too can earn from blogging. But unlike other bloggers, I will not say that it is easy to earn and succeed in the field of blogging.

Because more than 4 billion people are into blogging this year and almost 95% of bloggers fail to reach their goals.

Why because they didn’t try to find a solution to the question “what all I need to know before I launch my first blog”?

• Are you planning to start blogging this year in 2024?
• Do you want to share your knowledge with the online world and make money from it?
• Or do you want to find new clients for your business and connect with customers?
• And of the most important question, Do you want to know how to write a blog?

You are at the right place, my friend. Relax, sip a cup of coffee and hold on with me.

Important Things To Need to Know Before Starting a Blog

So before explaining each point in detail, which you need to know to be successful in this field, Let me tell you a few things to keep in mind.

1. Have a Plan Before Starting Your Blogging Business

The first and foremost thing you need to consider before launching your first blog is to have a plan.

Think about why you are blogging, Promoting your business? or Making money through Adsense with your content. etc.

Then decide and set goals according to your wish.

If you don’t have any idea about how to write, consider following your successful competitor’s style.

Look at how they present the content to the readers, and what they do to hold on to the top position.

Analyzing the competitors not only helps you to plan ahead but also provides new ideas and the latest updates in your field.

I know this sounds bad to some people. But come on, You are not copy-pasting, You are just seeking some guidance from them.

2. Choose the Right Topic for Your Blog

Now having a plan in your head, the next thing to do is to choose the right topic or niche. Because you are going to write content around the niche and publish it in your blog.

You need to choose one specific topic each time you post your new content. There are many types of blogs that make money by writing and publishing articles.

Selecting a topic that is highly demanded is a good option, But you need to be very careful because the competition for you increases here.

Please don’t choose a topic because someone else is making more money writing about it. You will not be able to do justice to the content if you don’t like the area.

Also, try to avoid the topic you love very much, but the audience doesn’t find interest in it. After all, you need audiences for your blog to bring your purpose to the blog to succeed.

3. Do a Thorough Market Research

Before starting anything new, doing background research on the area of choice is a must to know what to expect and what to do.

The same is the case with blogging too.

Doing proper research helps you with the following ;

1. It helps you to understand the popularity of the area you have chosen among the audience.
2. It supports you to analyze target people and potential customers.
3. Guide you on how to improve your customer relationships to increase sales or attain desired results.
4. Aid you in reducing the risk factors you may face while making decisions.
5. Give an idea about new opportunities that you can implement in your blog.

4. Blogging is About Passion and Interest

One of the necessary skills a blogger needs is writing skills. A passionate writer can easily start a blog because blogging demands writing skills.

But if you are thinking of starting a blog just to make money, You may find it boring soon or later. The success of blogging will not happen overnight.

Provide the audience with the information they are trying to find online with utmost sincerity. To do this, you need to be passionate about blogging.

I know you are, That’s why you are here, But if anyone is here expecting to achieve quick success through blogging, you can leave this page now.

Passion is the ethical way of working hard and smart on something you love. So if you don’t love blogging your productivity decreases.

Hence, before choosing blogging as a career, One should be passionate about blogging.

5. Decide on the Blogging Platform

The next step is to decide on the blogging platform. There are several platforms available online like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Blogger, etc.

Read More: WordPress vs Blogger – Which is Better?

But according to a survey taken in 2019 about the blogging platform of all the websites available, WordPress leads the list.

Estimated more than 45% of all websites use WordPress as their blogging platform.

The reason for this is

1. WordPress is free to use.
2. It’s an open-source platform.
3. Easiness to use and is very fast.
4. It’s extremely extensible.
5. It provides complete freedom to customize according to your need.

Having said about WordPress, you may get confused when you search ‘ WordPress’ on google because you will see wordpress.org and wordpress.com.

WordPress is a free open-source CMS software developed to create blogs and websites without the need for coding. You can download this free software from WordPress.org, whereas, WordPress.com is a hosting service that allows people to host their WordPress blogs.

6. Choose the Right Domain Name

Once decided on the blogging platform, choose the right domain name for your blog as this has a major role in your success.

Because this is the brand name people keep in their mind and also helps you in SEO ranking. So when you are new to all this, you may find it difficult in deciding on the right domain name.

The following tips can help you to decide on a suitable domain name.

1. Choose the domain name relating to the area of interest
2. Make your domain name short as well as easy to remember and pronounce.
3. Use keywords in the domain name.
4. Refrain from using hyphens and double letters to avoid typo errors.
5. Seeks help from domain name generators for new ideas.
6. Research for similar domain names if available to avoid mischoosing

7. Choose the Right Web Hosting Services

A web host is an inevitable part of blogging.

The web hosting company provides you the space on the server to host your blog, store its data and maintain it active 24/7.

You can’t run a blog without a hosting platform. All your blog files, images, and scripts are hosted on the web server and served via the web browser upon request by the users.

I suggest you go with paid hosting services because,

• If you choose a free hosting service, your domain name will be their company name like fashionblog.wordpress.com
• This looks unprofessional and hence people will not give it serious consideration.

So, consider going with paid web hosting services. As there is a high competition going on in this field, you will find good services at a low price.

8. Plan to Structure Your Blog

Structuring your blog properly is essential to make reading easier. It not only satisfies your readers but also helps you increase the ranking of your blog through SEO

The basic structure of a blog consists of 4 elements,

The Header Part: This is the part readers first look at, so make it attractive and try to convey complete information regarding this in the content before starting the post

The Introduction: This part is the section that should make people hold on to reading the complete post. so here, give an outline of the content in the main body. Also, make sure to Include keywords

The Main Content: This is the portion containing the main information. Arrange it logically avoiding long paragraphs and making reading simple and flowy.

Conclusion: This is the final part that helps readers to make a decision or take action.

9. Brainstorm New Blog Post Ideas

There is a huge competition among blogs on almost all topics. Hence, to succeed you need to bring new post ideas that will attract and thereby help more audiences.

So finding out new unique ideas that readers love to accept is really tricky. You could find several ideas online that can be adopted if you are confused about how to start.

I can suggest you a few;

1. Interviewing a well-known influencer
2. Giving people a complete step-by-step guide to solving a problem
3. Sharing an average day in your life as a freelancer etc.

10. Content is King

Once you are set with all the steps above, the next thing to do is to prepare the content for your blog.

So, how should the content for a blog get noticed and succeed in the blogging world?

In short,

• It should contain compelling Headlines. The majority of people read headlines to decide whether the information they seek is within the content.
• Provide a captivating introduction to hook readers until the end of the post.
• Write what readers want to hear in simple language.
• Include tips that help readers take action adding trust factors.
• Be engaging and ask for readers’ opinions.

When writing an article for your blog, follow these ten tips on SEO-friendly blog posts. It will help you groom your writing skill, thereby delivering a quality article for your blog.

11. Need the Patience to Achieve Success

As I have said earlier, success from blogging will not happen overnight. The readers are the ones that help you succeed, so getting more traffic and being recognized by search engines will take time.

You need to be highly patient to achieve the desired victory as the competition is very high in this field.

Patience will open up more skills within yourself while blogging. It helps to increase productivity which in turn helps you create quality posts.

As said above, content is the king of a blog, so if you want to give your best, you will need to research a lot and provide quality information each time.

So, in short, without patience, you are not going to achieve anything from blogging

12. Blogging Requires Discipline in all Your Activities

Self-discipline is an imminent quality to succeed in any field. It is like ‘ Doing what you want even if you don’t wish to do it ‘.

So when it comes to blogging, you are your boss and your success completely depends on yourself.

If you are not considering blogging as time pass, then being disciplined is highly important.

Because it takes months of hard work and consistent publishing to gain a place in people’s hearts.

Hence being extra motivated is essential.

Make your working place distraction-free and ask yourself why you started blogging whenever you feel down.

Stop procrastinating on the daily tasks related to work and also don’t count on the visitors to your blog.

13. Consistency is the Key

You cannot expect a favorable outcome from blogging just by posting a few posts even if it is brilliant. Consistency not only makes you noticed by the audiences but also by search engines.

So when you regularly update with new quality content, people will hook up with your blog expecting more fresh content.

This also shows your dedication in this field which helps build trust in readers making you more popular.

So how can you achieve consistency in blogging?

1. Set goals to achieve in blogging and prioritize them accordingly
2. Prepare content in advance
3. Set an outline for what all to do in the coming months
4. Be motivated and engage yourself in social media groups

14. Target More Income Streams

If you aim to earn a decent income from blogging, simply writing content will not help. You will need to find out more income streams

Normally, income from blogging comes from the Ads that Google places in your content – if Google finds your blog-worthy.

But this will take time and also the amount getting will be less or depending on your traffic.

So finding several other ways is very important. Let’s see what are few ways

1. Through direct advertising
2. By Affiliate marketing
3. Providing paid reviews as an influencer
4. Offering online courses
5. Through selling sponsored products
6. Offering freelance services by advertising yourself etc.

15. Ability to Adapt to Changes

Adaptability is the ability to learn new skills and practices in return for a change in circumstances.

So, while taking blogging as a career, be ready to be highly adaptable by all means as blogging is a long-term process.

Each year new techniques are coming and to cope with them you have no other choice than to learn and master them.

Now how can it be possible?

1. Try to focus on improving
2. Practice voluntarily, not for someone else’s sake.
3. Be confident and accept improvement
4. Learn from mistakes
5. Come out of your comfort zone

16. Use SEO to Rank your Blog

The rank of your blog shows its position in the search engine results.

If the ranking is high, your blog will be shown on the first page of the search engine whenever people search-related topics.

Everyone needs their blog to be shown on the first page because that brings more organic traffic to your blog which is extremely beneficial to your success.

But the SEO algorithm is highly mutating and hence to get a high ranking, you need to follow specific techniques which will help you survive

1. Create a captivating domain name for your blog.
2. Use effective keywords in suitable places on the content.
3. Organize your blog structure properly.
4. Advertise yourself on all social media platforms.
5. Write quality contents that both people and SEO can understand.
6. Use backlinks.
7. Post regularly.

17. Never Try the Black Hat Method

The black hat method means unethical ways of getting a higher ranking that is against search engine guidelines.

If you try these techniques, you may be able to get results initially, but not so long.

It will not help you gain anything in long run but can make your blog penalized resulting in lower ranking and eventually lesser organic traffic.

So what are those main blackhat techniques you need to avoid;

1. Over usage of keywords.
2. Paid links.
3. Spamming everywhere.
4. Backlinking to websites that are not related to your content.
5. Copying someone else content.

18. Be Social and Find Ways to Grow Your Network

Being social not only helps improve your business but also provides new opportunities.

It will help you engage with new talented people to help you grow by all means.

You need to market yourself if you want to get noticed and drive organic traffic to your blog.

Hence being active on social media platforms helps you get more audience and desired results.

So what do you need to do on social media platforms to drive more traffic?

1. Regularly share your content on all social media platforms.
2. Seeks reader’s suggestions to improve yourself.
3. Ask people to promote your blog etc.

19. Start Building Email Lists from Day 1

Email marketing is a great way to promote your blog. In another article on recent blogging trends to follow, I have explained the importance of collecting emails.

It helps you to be in connection with potential customers by sharing your latest post by creating a subscriber list.

According to recent statistics, Email marketing is generating more sales than any other marketing means.

It is a low-cost marketing method that gives high results

So, building an email list of your visitors can increase your traffic as a comeback from them is visibly high.

If you are thinking of starting blogging, then choosing a suitable email marketing platform will be the best option.

It will help you manage your valuable data and confidential conversations safely and securely.

20. Focus on Improving Website Speed

The speed of a website has a crucial role in determining:

• How long have people been reading your blog article?
• Your ranking in search engines.
• How many potential customers convert into real customers etc?

If you want to improve your income and achieve the desired level, increasing your website speed is highly important.

How can you do that? Have a look

• Use good web hosting platforms.
• Don’t forget to add the trailing slash.
• Enable GZIP compression.
• Allow browser caching.
• Compress the images to help ease loading.
• Reduce HTTP requests etc.

Conclusion

Starting a blog for the first time may create many doubts in people who are new to the world of blogging.

Without doing proper background research about ‘what to expect, and ‘what to do may end you giving up the idea of blogging soon just like many new bloggers do.

I don’t wish you to drop the idea of blogging because of a lack of knowledge. This article is the simplest answer to your question ‘ From where should I start my blog? ‘.

Having provided 20 important things to know before starting a blog in 2024, all I can say is Don’t think You are not behind many people in the blogging world.

If you have the right talent and a mindset to hard work with patience consistently, You can achieve the desired goal soon.

I will not say it will happen within days, but yeah! it can happen within a few months and that’s great when considering people blogging without any idea.

There are several important things you need to know in detail before starting a blog. I hope the tips I provided helped you in some way or another.

Have a great day !!!!