What is a blog ?
Blog is some type of a log but on the web, you can basically call it a weblog, as you can find that blogs can be made from any type of media so in a nutshell, blog is a bunch of text, images, videos, audios and a lot of other media that it’s organized and loaded up on the web so anyone can view it through a web browser on their computers, tablets, mobiles, smart TV, wearable or any other devices they might be using.
If that’s the basic blog definition then who is the blogger then ?
Well, the blogger is the person who is responsible for making the content and organize it on the blog using a content management system which can be one of the famous like WordPress or any other custom made platforms but that’s our focus now as we only focus on the content that’s being created not how it will be shown on the web for now, later on we will introduce all the famous CMS systems and how to use it.
Types of content
Once you get to the online world you will be amazed by the enormous amount of content types, I won’t be listing all of them all now but I will just mention the types related to this guide, however I do really encourage you to have at least a quick glance at the other types of content too, so here is some of the major content types that you will see in the blogging world :
How Tos
Basically it’s like a list of ordered steps to be followed for doing a certain thing which can be anything from fixing for computer to losing weight without exercise.
Lists
It’s a list of related items or characters which sharing the same criteria and it can be anything that listing characters like top 10 WWE players in 2016 or something technical like : top 20 smartphones 2016.
Videos
Videos can really go viral online, and it can be used to showcase a product or even a service, also can be used as a visual way to deliver a set of information. Lately the term vlog can be noticed on the internet which is simply a blogging technique using videos.
Infographics
A visual way to deliver your content which is a picture that explain a certain concept or promotion which can be really useful in many cases.
Gif
Simply an animated picture that can be a substitute for a very short video.
Twitter embed
Simply it’s a way to integrate a tweet in your article.
Quotes
It’s a piece of speech or a note that was said by someone that’s mostly famous, it can really support your article when you mention the quote owner and link to him/her as a resource.
The list of content types and keep going on and on but we will stop at this point and fairly easy to search for the other types of content online according to your own needs as in this guide I only wanted to show you the way in.
Making a unique personality for your content
Think about content as a way of communication, for instance your tone, body moves, reactions and even the eye contact can deliver a ton of signals and information about what you trying to say and about you as well.
When you are writing a content you are simply trying to communicate and spread the word out which is mostly a set or targeted audience but it’s not always the case.
So while you are creating your content and specifically articles, the only way to deliver the information will be your words, which can seriously deliver the total opposite of what you trying to say if you used it wrongly.
For instance have you ever been messaging someone on facebook or whatever messenger you use and he/she understood the total opposite of what you meant ? We all have been there, huh !!
As an example from the real life Most of us found himself/herself in an interview applying for a job or joining some type organizations, college or even applying for a visa, so during the interview you might think that only your C.V., past work, skills, education and experience are being tested, however one of the main reasons you might lose you chance can be your personality, which can be exposed by so any reasons.
For instances your posture and the way you shaking hands even the eye contact, all that can easily tell if you are an unsocial person or an open up, which can be an indicator for your character.
The same goes for the content you create as it the content can really tell a lot about the author, you should let your personality melt down with the content you deliver. You don’t need to fake anything and you even should simply let it flow naturally.
Your authority and reliability can be increased by the honesty of your content and also how useful it is, for instance using a reliable resource like a quotes from a famous person while linking back to him/her to prove that it’s his quote.
Even quoting a very small part of an article that belongs to a famous organization like wikipedia or cnn with mentioning and linking back to the original article can be a great way to support what you saying and adding more authority to your content and eventually to yourself.
Please note! That you can’t simply copy chunks from other websites or from some social media outlets and then paste it in your article as that will get your penalized by Google and your article won’t rank high at all and I will explain this in details later in this guide.
Making content about your real passion can be the best solution for you as if when someone is really passionate about what he/she is saying it will be really easy to tell so, plus if you are really passionate about what you writing then will give all your energy to deliver the information to your audience which a plus point for your authority.
Understand your audience very well to pick the right terms and abbreviation that they use They would always like to feel that you understand their problems and needs like you are one of them already.
For instance if I’m a reading an article about programming methodology and I’m working in the field of development then i gonna need to feel like the author understands my needs and the problems that I’m facing with my work so while reading the article I expect some real example of what I’m going through or a solution for a problem that I face.
Maybe even the author can simply start a discussion by a question that most of the people working in the field come across it often which will encourage the readers to engage with the author.
Make your content personal and make your followers and readers feel like each piece of your content was written specifically for them Make your articles sound like it’s directly talking to the reader.
Don’t be afraid of sharing your own experience with your readers, even if you don’t have enough experience already then you can just think out loud in your article and start asking some unanswered questions and let your reader engage and share their thoughts.
In face it’s one of the best ways to engage with your audience and to know their thoughts and needs which can help you creating a content plan which is the next step.
Making a content plan
To get things organized for your content you need to post periodically if you can to retain your reader and to stay in touch with the community.
Human minds can forget so easy so if all of the sudden you stop posting your articles to your audience base they will simply forget about you.
So best solution here is coming up with a plan which should explain the exact time that you will publish each article and at least what each article will talk about or even the article title if possible.
It doesn’t has to be a plan for months ahead as you can make one for only the upcoming month or even for the upcoming couple of weeks.
You will need to specify your targeted audience and in which niche/field you will write before putting down your content plan.
Also you gonna have to keep in mind the time you have dedicated to blogging not to miss the scheduled articles date later.
Content marketing
Publish your articles through all the available channels according to your niche. After all, you are basically making a content to deliver it to a group of people or at least to someone in some cases, so making a content is meant to deliver the information and not just having the content out there.
One of the most popular outlets for your content can be the social media. You can choose between many of social media outlets like: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Google Plus, Reddit, Tumblr and many others according to your targeted audience and niche.
To publish your content you need to understand your audience first to know which type of content will suit them and second to know how you gonna find them.
You gonna have to choose the right outlet that can reach the right audience the fastest and the most convenient way.
Introduction to SEO
It’s an abbreviation for “ Search Engine Optimization “. To explain it in a nutshell, let’s say that there is someone willing to lose some extra weight but doesn’t want to do any exercises for some reason, and wants to find out how by searching online, so he/she decided to Google search and type in the search phrase : “how to lose weight without exercise“ then a search result page will come up with a list of multiple results and the first result was an article on a site called siteA.com and the second one was an article siteB.com, the reason why siteA.com is shown in the first result in the search results page is what we call it SEO rank of the site. So you can consider seo as a way to direct people that searching for a specific search term or a set of search terms to your article by the use of the seo rules.
SEO is a 2 sections of work:
Off-site seo which is the work done outside the website and we gonna talk about it in Later guides.
On-site seo which includes 2 parts:
Programming part which is not our concern in this article, and the content part which is our main concern here, however the best way to optimize your content for seo is to make a unique useful content which meant to add value to the reader.
As the more time your reader will spend on reading your article is a direct indicator for Google about how useful you content is.
Also genuine articles is a good indicator for search engines as well, so never try to copy an article or even copying chunks of other articles to yours as that will result a direct penalty to your article.
However you can put some quotes or some little tiny piece of content with linking back to the original content and even mention the original author as well but at the end you should never over do it.
Also mentioning your resources and linking back to them is a great way for search engine to tell how authorized and reliable your article is.
The conclusion:
Blogging is a way to engage and communicate with people online, as you can publish your own thoughts, ideas, information and even engage your audience.
Blogging will involve your own personality in the content you create and personal interaction with your audience, at the end humans are social by nature and we all tending to communicate one way or another so think of your content as a way to reaching out and engaging others.
Publishing your content is the main reason to create it the first place, makes use of the social outlets that suits your content and highest existence of your audience.
Making a unique and useful content for your audience is a great way to get the attraction and making use of the SEO to get more visits to your article and reaching out to your audience, however seo is more than just that but this is one of major rules of its algorithm.
If you have experienced the blogging world before or have some thoughts you would like to share with me then please don’t hesitate to post your comments.
