What you Need to Know Before You Start Blogging — Blogging Tips
Blogging can be a wonderful way to express yourself. As social beings, we are inherently built for communication and to express ourselves. We have the ability to dispense information or knowledge and in doing so help others tackle a subject. While expressing ourselves, we also nourish our need for communication. A good way to communicate and share ideas is through blogging. Let us delve in and look at what you need to know before you start blogging.
My Background—Who is David Mania?
My name is David Mania, a blogger, upcoming musician, and photographer. I have been blogging for a year now and I am marveled by the learning I have done. In just one year I came from not having a blog to now running five blogs. Blogging can be wonderful and is a journey that, despite a lack of know-how initially, can be so fulfilling. I feel like I am free when I write. I feel like my words take my soul with them when they fly across the world. If you feel like writing is for you, you should definitely start a blog. Just do it. Start today and even better, you do not need to have all the technical knowhow or any money to. You can start a blog right here on Medium for free!
I started my first blog in June of 2020 after losing my online writing job. Part of losing my job was out of fatigue and a lack of passion for academic writing. Unfortunately, this was also around the time after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. I had to figure out a way to pursue my passion for writing, and at the same time, make it a business and something I can earn from. Through my research I learnt that I could start a blog with do it with just a little amount of money. That’s when David Mania — www.davidmania.com- was born.
I had no idea on where to start, which was the best hosting provider, what I would write about, how I could make money from blogging, and so on. I decided to put everything else on the side and to concentrate on blogging, even if that meant having no income. Mind you, this was during the Coronavirus pandemic. I figured out a way to sustain myself and since I had just left university, it made sense for me to go on this crazy journey right away.
You can imagine how difficult it would be to choose to have no income at a time one is older and has responsibilities like a family to feed. I am happy that I started and I am just now starting to see the fruits of my labor. Start now and put in the work as early as possible. You will be glad you did. I’ll breakdown the tips I have for you as deeply as possible. The following are my top blogging tips.
Blogging Tips I Wish I Knew When Starting Out
Blogging like everything else requires a willingness to learn. You should not start anything in life if you do not have this urge to learn. If you close yourself up to failure, and the learning that comes out of it, then you are more likely to fail than succeed. Open your mind to learning and always seek continuous improvement.
When starting a blog, seek growth over money. Your blog will most definitely not make money from day one. If you want to make something from the get-go, then I would advise starting a blog here on www.medium.com. You are more likely to make something faster here than on your own blog. However, if you want to have your own thing, then focus on creating content and growing your audience first. When you have all the systems in place, and have a working schedule on how you create content, then you can think of making some money off your writing.
Write consistently! Consistency is what gets good things flowing your way steadily. The most consistent content creators are the best paid. The more you write, the better you get at it. Consistency not only helps keep your audience engaged, it also helps improve your skills. That is super precious! Better skills will mean greater quality content which will translate to more income and growth.
Don’t just niche your content, micro-niche! We have all heard the concept of ‘niches’ over and over again. That is a definitely a good place to start. However, if possible, micro-niche. Don’t just target the beauty category, go deeper and target a sub-category such as makeup. The sub-category will be more specific and on-point. As a result, users will know exactly what to expect from you and you will attract users interested in particular micro-niches. The benefit of niches and micro-niches is that you get more engagement and this could mean faster growth, greater positive impact, and even a good payday.
Have a mentor. Most of the things I now wish I knew about blogging are things that could have been shared with me by a mentor. Having a mentor can save you a lot of headaches and, honestly, sleepless nights while trying to figure out how to approach blogging. Even as I can guarantee you sleepless nights, it is better to spend them trying to figure out technical aspects of blogging but not things that a mentor could teach you. Moreover, some of the soft skills needed are better taught than researched. A perfect example is the structuring of content. Do you want to write fast-paced or slower content? Such skills and many others are better taught than researched.
Share! Share! Share! If you choose to go for blogging, please be in as many social media platforms as possible. Share your work as widely as you can. One of the things that motivates me to share my work is the idea that you should not light a candle and put it under a pot. As such, please always share your work. Even when you feel that maybe the writing is not that good, just share.
Your writing will get better and by the time it does, you will already have systems in place to share your content and increase your reach. Sharing is only one part of ensuring your content reaches readers. To appear in search engine results, use Search Engine Optimization or SEO. You can read about SEO here. Your SEO efforts will only be bolstered by sharing your content widely.
I learnt the importance of sharing when one of my blogs, Mania Inc. — www.maniainc.com, saw a surge of traffic out of me consistently sharing articles on socials. One of the clever ways to share your content is to use a link tool such as Linktree. For instance, I have all my links on my Linktree—https://linktr.ee/davidmania. This gives me one link for everything and makes sharing all that much easy.
Diversify your writing. The truth is, like a toddler entering kindergarten, your first day blogging won’t be your best and your writing won’t be world-class just yet. However, you will have the opportunity for continuous improvement. You will have the opportunity to get better with each blog post you make. Don’t expect to start your first day knowing everything and please do not pressure yourself to create overly impressive content. As I said, think about it like your first day in school and being in kindergarten; you will get better over time. Something else I have realized is that the more your write, the better and faster you are at it. You will also learn to write more conversational content and resonate with your audience more.
Be conversational. A blog is like an audio conversation that has been written out on text. It should be and feel conversational. One way I know that I am writing good content is feeling like I am talking to you. I feel that way right now. That is what you are aiming for and that is inherently what conversational writing is all about. Your writing is for people to read so it is only right that you speak to them. Be respectful, courteous, and share some love. I always feel so happy to let my readers know that I love them. Being conversational also means being human. Empathize with your readers and ask yourself whether as a reader, what you are writing would resonate with you or solve a problem you have.
Be useful. If you really want sustainable long-term success with blogging, be useful. Create valuable content that will represent and present value to others. In turn, your audience will return this value to you by sharing your content, recommending it, and subscribing to what you offer. Depending on how you have set up your blog, this could also mean making some money. Think about it this way, money is an exchange of value. When you give value, others will return it in one form or another. I learnt this recently when I launched Mania Gadgets — www.maniagadgets.com. Mania Gadgets, even in its infancy, has a lot of potential for presenting value to others. When you solve other people’s problems, they will solve yours by buying-in to what you provide.
Those are all the blogging tips I have for now. The blogging journey is a journey after all and not a destination. Give yourself time, be patient with yourself and enjoy the process. Start writing and be open to learning as you go. On another note, I have mentioned some of my blogs in there as a way to help you find me. Again, part of blogging is self-promotion so it’s always good to share what you do and present your work to others.
What is Mania Inc.?
I run five blogs under my brand Mania Inc., and I will quickly mention each of them. Mania Inc. is a group of five blogs, including the following.
The first one is a personal blog named after me. It is called David Mania and you can find it on www.davidmania.com. The second one is a lifestyle and culture blog named Mania Inc. You can find it on www.maniainc.com. The third is a news and tech blog named Mania News. Find it on www.maniaincnews.com. The fourth is a sports and fitness blog named Mania Sports. You can find it on www.maniaincsports.com. The fifth blog is a tech and gadget reviews blog named Mania Gadgets. You can find it on www.maniagadgets.com. An easy way to reach me is through my Linktree — https://linktr.ee/davidmania. It has links to all my blogs and social media.
Reach Out
Reach out and we can delve deeper into blogging and what you need to kickstart your blog. My Linktree also has numerous recommendations and resources that would be useful while starting out. I am so happy to share what I have learnt through the one year blogging with you. I’ve tried to be as in-depth as possible and you can always reach out to me for more details on what I would advise for blogging. Thank You! Stay Safe. God bless.
