What Do You Need To Become A Blogger?
If you’ve ever been reading someone’s blog and thought that you could do a better job (or even a similar job in your own field), then you could well be right.
Many people have the skills to become professional bloggers, but they don’t realise it because they’re not given the opportunity to flourish and thrive in that industry.
The fact is, though, that anyone can become a blogger; still, it takes something special to differentiate professional bloggers from amateurs and hobbyists. Here’s what you’re going to need to become a professional blogger.
Expertise
The most important thing to be as a blogger is knowledgeable. If you know a lot about your core subject, then your expertise as a writer is going to be valuable.
If not, then you’re going to come across as a dilettante, and you might struggle to find readers who will engage with your content.
If you’re already an authority in your chosen field, then you’re ideally-placed to start blogging (although, of course, this doesn’t mean you’re going to immediately start making a profit from your writing). Bear that in mind before you decide to start a blog.
Funding
Blogging is often free, but if you want to make a serious go of it, then you’re going to need things like a permanent web domain, and you’ll have other expenses like paying professional web designers or buying technology.
For that reason, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re set up with some funding before you start thinking about becoming a full-time blogger.
You’ll usually find that you can avail yourself of direct lender loans that will help you fund your blog, and you can also dip into savings or use income from a regular job to help you.
A strong brand identity
A big part of being a blogger is differentiating yourself from your competition, i.e. other bloggers (and there will be others operating in your sphere).
With that in mind, you need to develop a strong brand identity for yourself. Your brand identity includes the name of your blog, which should be short and snappy, and it also includes your graphic design, the overall aesthetic of your blog, and anything else that pertains to how you present yourself.
As such, you should spend some time thinking about this aspect of your business, because not doing so could put you behind.
A social media presence
Social media can be an invaluable tool for publicising your blog. You can use it to let people know when a new post has been uploaded, and in many cases, people will want to engage with you via social media rather than via the bespoke comments section on your blog (which you should still make sure you have, as this is not a hard and fast rule).
Make sure that you’ve signed up for all the most popular social media apps of the moment, and try to throw a few curveballs in there too; after all, you never know what app is going to get popular next, right?
Engagement
Once people start reading your blog and leaving comments, it’s important to reply to those comments, because this is how you can increase engagement on your blog.
Engagement is arguably a more critical metric than simple numbers; it shows not just how many people might be landing on your site (potentially by accident), but how many are choosing to remain there and engage with what they’re seeing, which shows who’s actually reading what you’ve written.
Engage with readers and you’ll likely encourage more readers in future!
A blogging network
Since it’s not just you out there in this big world of blogging, it’s important to think about building a network of people that you can surround yourself with.
This network should consist of like-minded bloggers who write along similar lines to you, but also anybody who matches your general approach to writing, because they might be able to point you towards lucrative or important opportunities (and vice versa).
Reach out to other bloggers and talk to them about their experiences. You could even start a Discord server or something similar in order to keep up with everyone’s developments!
Collaboration
Whether it’s guest posting or simply teaming up with another blogger to write collaborative content, collaboration is one of the cornerstones of professional blogging.
Working alongside others shows that you’re willing to reach out and diversify your content, and it might even lead to a partnership that could end up being more lucrative or more rewarding than blogging on your own.
It’s important not to ostracise those that are writing similar content to you for this reason; don’t see your fellow bloggers as competitors, but rather as potential teammates for future content team-ups.
SEO
SEO isn’t quite the be-all and end-all that it once was – many search engines now also prioritise authority, trustworthiness, and readability as well – but it’s still incredibly important for a budding blog.
Building a strong SEO strategy doesn’t just involve including the right keywords in your content (although this is, of course, important).
It’s also all about structuring your posts correctly, knowing how to build your sentences and paragraphs, and understanding exactly what search engines are looking for in order to rank your content.
This is a skill you’ll acquire over time, so make sure that you’re consistently devoting time to researching good SEO practices; they also change over time, so it’s important to stay up to date with this element of blogging.
