Regardless of what major you pursue or what you will soon be graduating with, you can put those report writing skills and English classes to good use and help define yourself as a professional in your industry by creating your own blog.
If you don’t know what a blog is, it is a kind of site that spotlights articles and written work, otherwise called blog entries. Bloggers frequently compose from an individual point of view that enables them to reach their audience.
Most websites offer a comments area where readers can leave their thoughts, ideas and questions allowing you a chance to interact and sell depending on what your business is.
What’s in a Name
The initial step to finding a decent blog name is picking your topic which will usually accommodate your business. A decent blog name ought to be illustrative with the goal that potential readers and customers can in a split second determine what your blog is about just from the name.
If you are blogging to assert yourself as a professional for your business you will need to incorporate that somehow or another in your blog name.
If you are wanting to make an individual blog where you talk about an assortment of subjects then I suggest utilizing your name or some variety of it, since your blog is about you, your thoughts and opinions. These are less business-oriented. If you do not have your blog attached to your company website you will need a .com, .net or .org webpage. If the name is already taken you might have to get a little more creative.
Caught in the Web
You cannot run a business nowadays without an online presence. To prepare your blog for action you need two things: blog facilitating and blogging programming. Fortunately, these ordinarily come bundled together. A blog host is an organization that stores most of the records for your blog and conveys them to the client when they type in your blog name.
There are numerous platforms out there with a variety of selling points and styles to fit individuals. If you already have a website you may need to reach out to your designer or find a way to add a blog to your page or completely start from scratch. Wix, Weebly and WordPress are all good starting points to work off from on your journey to find your perfect fit.
All About Your Image
Everybody has a different thought of how they need their blog to look. Depending on who you go with to facilitate your blog they will include various templates to work with that will provide you with freedom of total creation to generic pages you can use freely.
This is where the image of your business comes into play. What are you trying to sell? Are you feminine or masculine? Who is your audience? Are you elegant or more down-to-Earth? Are there certain colors associated with your business. This may take some playing around, but the end product can be amazing and uniquely you.
Begin Writing
Since your blog is ready for action it’s a great opportunity to really do some blogging! As you learn your platform and service make your way to your posting section. Make sure you know your audience, which you should as they are the ones buying your product or service.
Make sure to include compelling headlines, subheadings, images and bullet points in each post. Think of blog posting similar to magazine articles as opposed to dense newspaper literature.
Finally, in all your posts include a clear call-to-action. A call-to-action is a way of getting your audience to engage whether that is sharing their own ideas in the comments, liking your post or sharing it to others. Once you have written your piece, revise, revise, revise.
Marketing Your Blog and Website
Making a well-structured blog and composing extraordinary substance is only the beginning. To make your blog work in your favor you need to drive people to your site. One preferred approach to get customers and readers to my blog is to post links on my social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
As more followers come in, email advertising assumes a major job. By gathering the email locations of your guests, with their authorization, you would then be able to advise them when you post something new on your blog. This keeps individuals returning to your blog and hopefully buying your product.
Many people look at blogging as a quick money-making scheme but aside from blogs that teach people how to make money, most blogs do not bring in a living income on blogging alone.
It is advertisements, subscriptions and chargeable services and products offered via the blog that provides the writer with an income and that’s only if you can convince your readers that you know what you’re talking about. If you love writing and think you can use it to your advantage blogging can be the perfect path for you.
James Novotny
Staff Writer