20 Actionable Blogging Tips for Beginners

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Started a blog but can’t get immoderate readers? Let’s fix that.

I started blogging successful 2015. From a blog astir breakdancing to being a nonrecreational contented marketer, I’ve learned a batch on the way. 

In this post, I’ll stock the 20 blogging tips I privation I had known erstwhile I started.

Let’s get to it.

1. Focus connected a profitable niche that you’re passionate about

Don’t messiness astir connected the blogosphere connected things you don’t attraction about. You won’t instrumentality with it. 

Plus, your contented volition apt besides beryllium the aforesaid arsenic everyone else’s, which makes competing hard. So choose thing you love

If the top-ranking articles consistently grind your gears due to the fact that they’re incorrect oregon springiness atrocious advice, this is simply a motion of a bully niche. Make it your task to acceptable the grounds straight. 

Ideally, the niche should beryllium profitable. By that, I mean that determination are existent radical paying for products and services. 

Google your niche (or applicable keywords) and spot if the ranking sites are monetizing. It tin beryllium from ads, affiliate marketing, products (courses, e-commerce, books, etc.), software, and services (consulting, existent execution, speaking, etc.). If they are monetizing, it astir apt means determination is simply a market. 

For example, if your niche is teaching Korean, you’ll find sites connected Google selling books, courses, apps, tutoring, and acquisition subscriptions. 

A tract  selling acquisition  books and courses astir  learning Korean

2. Make definite your website’s method fundamentals are solid

Imagine spending each your clip and effort creating tons of utile content, yet nary 1 tin ever find it. Does it consciousness similar it already hurts somewhere? I feel you. 

But it can happen. It tin beryllium arsenic elemental arsenic a rogue noindex tag connected your website, and you won’t adjacent amusement up successful hunt engines. 

Technical issues tin wreak havoc connected your site. So marque definite you fix them.

The simplest mode to bash this is to motion up for our escaped Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) and tally a crawl of your site. If determination are immoderate method issues, the instrumentality volition emblem them retired for you. 

It’ll besides explicate wherefore thing is an contented and however you tin fix it:

An issue, with proposal  connected  however  to fix, via Ahrefs' Site Audit

3. Target topics radical are searching for

If you privation consistent, passive postulation coming to your site, the champion mode is to rank precocious connected Google. To bash that, you’ll request to people topics radical are searching for. 

Here’s however to find these topics:

  1. Enter 1 oregon a fewer applicable keywords into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
  2. Go to the Matching presumption report
  3. Switch the tab to Questions
Matching presumption     report, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Ideally, you’d privation to tackle topics that are:

  1. High successful Traffic Potential (TP) – TP is the estimated magnitude of hunt postulation you tin perchance summation if you fertile #1 for that topic. We cipher it by estimating the magnitude of hunt postulation the #1 leafage presently gets.
  2. Low successful Keyword Difficulty (KD)KD is however hard it is to fertile for the keyword successful the apical 10 integrated hunt results. 

You tin constrictive down the database by utilizing the filters. For example, you tin acceptable a KD filter to a maximum of 10 and a TP filter to a minimum of 500. 

Keyword filters, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Then prime retired those keywords that are applicable to your site. 

Recommended reading: Keyword Research: The Beginner’s Guide by Ahrefs 

4. Tackle your competitors’ topics too

Imagine if you had a crystal shot that could spot exactly which of your competitors’ articles got the astir traffic. You’d beryllium capable to tackle the aforesaid topics and (hopefully) replicate their success. 

Well, you can. 

Here’s however to do it:

  1. Enter your competitor’s domain into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
  2. Go to the Top pages report
Top pages report, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer

This study shows you which articles nonstop your rival the astir integrated hunt traffic. 

For example, we tin spot that Beardbrand’s nonfiction connected beard styles gets an estimated 35,373 integrated visits per period successful the U.S. And retired of the 4,349 keywords it ranks for, “beard styles” sends it the astir traffic. 

If you’re competing with Beardbrand, this is simply a large mode to find topics to write about. 

Sidenote.

Some of these keywords volition beryllium hard to fertile for. But if they’re important to you, you should people them anyway. It conscionable whitethorn not beryllium now. Keep them successful caput and people them erstwhile your tract has grown.

5. Find “easy to rank” topics

Links are an important Google ranking factor. Generally speaking, the much high-quality links you have, the higher your leafage will rank. 

Let’s extrapolate from that idea. If a leafage doesn’t person galore backlinks but inactive ranks precocious connected Google, it means it’s a low-competition topic. And we tin find these topics utilizing Ahrefs’ Content Explorer:

  1. Enter a applicable keyword
  2. Set a Referring domains filter to max. 10
  3. Set a Page traffic filter to min. 500
Filtered results, via Ahrefs' Content Explorer

Click Details and past the Organic keywords tab to spot which keywords those pages are ranking for.

Organic keywords tab successful  Ahrefs' Content Explorer

These are imaginable keywords you tin target. 

6. Be mindful of hunt intent

Google aims to supply its users with the astir applicable results for their queries. So if you privation to fertile precocious connected Google, you request to beryllium the astir applicable result. 

In the existent world, that means creating contented that matches hunt intent.

What is hunt intent? Search intent is fundamentally the why behind a query. And since Google works to amusement the astir applicable results, we tin look astatine the top-ranking pages to fig retired the 3 Cs of hunt intent:

  1. Content type – Is determination a ascendant benignant of contented connected the SERP, specified arsenic blog posts, merchandise pages, videos, oregon landing pages?
  2. Content format – Is determination a ascendant contented format connected the SERP, specified arsenic guides, listicles, quality articles, sentiment pieces, oregon reviews?
  3. Content angle – Is determination a ascendant space connected the SERP, specified arsenic freshly updated contented oregon contented aimed astatine beginners?

For example, let’s analyse the 3 Cs for the topic, “best wireless headphones.”

SERP for "best wireless headphones"
  1. Content type – They’re each blog posts.
  2. Content format – They’re mostly listicles.
  3. Content angle – They’re mostly fresh, i.e., updated to the latest year.

So if you’re targeting this keyword, you’ll apt person to make thing similar—a listicle updated to the latest year.

Recommended reading: What Is Search Intent? A Complete Guide for Beginners 

7. Create contented that attracts amplifiers

In theory, each scholar volition stock your contented with astatine slightest 1 oregon 2 friends, thereby creating a “viral sensation.” 

In reality, virality seldom works this way. Instead, astir “viral” contented is kickstarted by amplifiers: Individuals who person the quality to get galore radical to spot and share. 

Typically, these amplifiers are radical who person a ample audience. Examples of amplifiers see journalists, influencers, YouTubers, podcasters, and more. 

The 4  contented  assemblage  groups

To make contented that amplifiers privation to share, it has to beryllium unique—unique data, perspectives, tips, etc.

A communicative from our main selling officer, Tim Soulo, perfectly illustrates this. Years ago, helium reached retired to selling influencer Rand Fishkin astir his epic 5,000-word usher to strategical writing. Rand said nary to sharing it. 

Email from Rand Fishkin

A fewer years later, Rand shared our post connected podcast advertising adjacent though we didn’t ask. Most recently, helium tweeted astir our GSC study:

The difference: Our contented is unique. 

How bash you make unsocial content? Here are some ideas:

  1. Do you person idiosyncratic acquisition with something? Write astir it. If you don’t, tin you acquisition oregon trial it somehow?
  2. Do you person entree to data, oregon tin you enactment with idiosyncratic who has? Analyze the information and contiguous your findings.
  3. Can you interrogation experts? It’s OK if you don’t person the prerequisite knowledge—you tin ever speech to thought leaders successful your field. 

8. Write similar however you talk

Forget your schooling days. Blogging connected the web is not similar penning an world paper. Nothing sends radical disconnected to dreamland faster than having to work an abstract, an introduction, a methodology, results, and a conclusion. 

You don’t person to beryllium stiff and formal. Good web transcript is casual. Write arsenic if you’re talking to a friend. 

Don’t beryllium acrophobic to disappoint your English teacher, for adjacent grammar rules tin sometimes beryllium bent—just similar however it is successful real life. 

9. Make your posts casual to read

Let’s beryllium real. No 1 is clamoring to work your article. They’d alternatively beryllium connected Netflix.

Therefore, it’s your occupation arsenic a blogger to get them to commencement reading. As celebrated copywriter Bond Halbert said, “Good penning creates effortless reading.”

Here’s however you tin alteration your user’s speechmaking experience:

  • Use abbreviated paragraphs – Huge chunks of substance daunt readers, but abbreviated ones invitation them in. Use Hemingway to fix this.
  • Break up agelong sentences – Long sentences are hard to follow. Break them up by uncovering instances wherever you utilized words similar “and,” “because,” and “that.”
  • Insert multimedia – Videos, images, GIFs, etc., tin assistance exemplify your points without adding more words.
  • Use formatting – Bold, italics, quotes, and lists interruption up chunks of transcript and adhd other emphasis.
  • Read your transcript retired loud – This pinpoints areas wherever your contented doesn’t travel smoothly. 
Messy vs. neat content

10. Craft eye-catching headlines with the ABC formula

On average, 5 times arsenic galore radical work the header arsenic work the body copy.

David Ogilvy

People volition determine whether to work your contented based connected your headline. This makes the header the astir important part. 

Use the ABC look to trade compelling headlines that reel readers in:

  • A – Adjective
  • B – Benefit
  • C – Confidence booster

Here’s however it works successful the real world:

Example of compelling headline

11. Hook your readers with a PAS intro

Your header has done its job. The scholar has arrived astatine your post. Now, it’s the introduction’s clip to shine—it has to hook them successful and get them to actually read the post. 

How bash you bash that? Consider utilizing the PAS formula: 

PAS formula

Here’s an illustration connected however to use it:

PAS look   successful  action

12. Reach retired to radical you mention

As you’re creating your content, it’s inevitable that you’ll notation idiosyncratic oregon nexus to 1 of their contented pieces. You should scope retired and fto them cognize aft you’ve published it.

Twitter DM conversation

Most of them volition beryllium delighted to perceive they’ve been featured. They whitethorn adjacent stock it connected societal media oregon nexus to it. 

Regardless of whether they do, what’s much important is that you commencement gathering a narration with them. This is however you make a web of like-minded friends successful the industry. 

To bash this, conscionable spell done your blog station and marque a enactment whenever you nexus elsewhere. Then, find their emails (or their societal media accounts) and scope retired to fto them know.

If you’re gathering your pursuing connected third-party platforms similar Twitter oregon YouTube, don’t beryllium amazed if they abruptly prohibition you, delete your account, oregon bounds your reach. 

They person their ain policies, and power is retired of your hands. 

The champion mode to combat this is to physique an email list. For arsenic agelong arsenic your fans are subscribed to you, you tin pass with them anytime.

Building an email database requires 2 ingredients: postulation and thing of value. 

Following the blogging tips successful this station volition get you the traffic. This means what you request is thing of worth to transportation your readers to articulation your list. At Ahrefs, we support it elemental by offering to present much of the contented they loved to their inbox.

Ahrefs' subscribe box

But the world’s your oyster. You tin connection a escaped ebook, the PDF mentation of the post, an email course, whatever. All you request is simply a spot of creativity.

14. Get feedback connected your content

If you’re penning alone, it’s casual to marque mistakes and miss things. So it’s worthy getting a 2nd brace of eyes connected your contented earlier you deed “publish.” 

We bash this each the time. We instrumentality turns to work each other’s contented and connection feedback. We place areas that tin beryllium added oregon removed, points that tin beryllium clarified, and sentences that tin beryllium worded better. 

We’ve adjacent reflected that successful each of our blog posts.

Ahrefs blog's writer  box

Most blog posts travel a communal structure. For example, we usage this template for listicles:

Listicle template

It’s the nonstop aforesaid template we’re utilizing for this station too. Did you spot it? 

Using templates saves you clip and keeps your contented prime consistent. So you don’t request to reinvent the instrumentality connected this front. Your readers won’t caput at all. 

Recommended reading: 4 Simple Blog Post Templates (And When to Use Them) 

16. Promote your contented by repurposing it

In all, 4.4 cardinal caller blog posts are published each time crossed each platforms. So don’t expect radical to “magically” find your content. You person to beforehand it and fto them know. 

One mode to bash this is to repurpose your published content into antithetic formats. For example, you tin crook contented pieces into videos, which was what we did for the earlier mentation of this post

You tin besides crook them into Twitter threads:

If you’re trying to lick keyword cannibalization, you mightiness beryllium cutting disconnected your chemoreceptor to spite your face. 🔪👃😱

Here’s why.

//THREAD//

— Joshua Hardwick (@JoshuaCHardwick) December 8, 2021

Or Reddit posts, Quora answers, IG stories, LinkedIn posts—you’re lone constricted by your creativity. 

Recommended reading: 13 Content Promotion Tactics to Get More Eyeballs connected Your Content 

17. Refresh older content

As you advancement on your blogging journey, your thoughts, opinions, knowledge, and adjacent penning benignant volition improve. You’ll beryllium doing your assemblage a disservice if you bash not update your older contented to bespeak your newfound cognition and ideas. 

Plus, refreshing your contented has an SEO payment too. We’ve seen galore times that an update oregon rewrite improves our rankings and gets america much hunt traffic. 

For example, we precocious updated our station connected free SEO tools, and integrated postulation spiked:

Spike successful  integrated  postulation   aft  an update

How bash you cognize which contented to refresh? The simplest mode is to instal our free WordPress SEO plugin and tally a content audit

Once you’ve identified the posts, past it’s a substance of figuring retired what you request to update. You tin bash this by analyzing the top-ranking pages to spot what they’re doing amended than you.

Sometimes, it’s due to the fact that definite sections are outdated. Sometimes, it’s due to the fact that you didn’t see definite subsections oregon screen definite subtopics. And occasionally, you got the full happening incorrect and request to bash a afloat rewrite (fret not, we bash this often too!). 

Recommended reading: Republishing Content: How to Update Old Blog Posts for SEO 

18. Read astatine slightest 30 minutes a day

Here are 2 quotes from the bestselling author, Morgan Housel:

  1. Most bully penning is simply a byproduct of bully reading. You’ll ne'er conscionable a bully writer who doesn’t walk astir of their clip reading.”
  2. Good ideas are casual to write, atrocious ideas are hard. Difficulty is simply a prime signal, and writer’s artifact usually indicates much astir your ideas than your writing.”

If you’re stuck successful your penning oregon can’t look to make thing unique, it means you’re not exposing yourself to new ideas. 

Reading is simply a cure to that. 

I urge gathering a habit of speechmaking astatine slightest 30 minutes a day. As for what books to read, you tin ever look toward the thought leaders successful your manufacture and spot what they’re recommending. 

19. Keep a commonplace book

According to Ryan Holiday, a commonplace book is:

A cardinal assets oregon depository for ideas, quotes, anecdotes, observations and accusation you travel crossed during your beingness and didactic pursuits. The intent of the publication is to grounds and signifier these gems for aboriginal usage successful your life, successful your business, successful your writing, speaking oregon immoderate it is that you do.

As you’re speechmaking and consuming, you request a spot to store your notes truthful you tin entree and punctual yourself of what you’ve already read. 

Creating 1 is simple. For me, I store each my notes connected Notion:

An illustration  of a commonplace publication  connected  Notion

As I’m speechmaking a book, I marque tons of highlights. After I’m done, I transportation them to a caller leafage successful the due category.

If I request something, I tin easy navigate to immoderate class oregon hunt for the things I’m looking for.

20. Create a “Do 100” project

David Bayles and Ted Orland constitute successful “Art & Fear”:

[A] ceramics teacher announced connected opening time that helium was dividing the people into 2 groups. All those connected the near broadside of the studio, helium said, would beryllium graded solely connected the quantity of enactment they produced, each those connected the close solely connected its quality. His process was simple: connected the last time of class, helium would bring successful his bath scales and measurement the enactment of the “quantity” group: 50 pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and truthful on. Those being graded connected “quality”, however, needed to nutrient lone 1 cookware — albeit a cleanable 1 — to get an “A”. Well, came grading clip and a funny information emerged: the works of the highest prime were each produced by the radical being graded for quantity. It seems that portion the “quantity” radical was busily churning retired piles of enactment – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” radical had sat theorizing astir perfection, and successful the extremity had small much to amusement for their efforts than grandiose theories and a heap of dead clay.

Quantity leads to quality. The much you create, the amended you become. 

In fact, my biggest leap successful betterment came erstwhile I committed to sending 5 emails a week to my breakdance blog subscribers. I yet wrote implicit a 100 emails.

Daily emails sent to a breakdance blog's subscribers

So if you privation to go a amended blogger, I urge creating a “Do 100” project. Basically, this is simply a task wherever you bash thing 100 times. In this case, you should beryllium aiming to write 100 blog posts

This volition support you accountable and unit you to “practice.”

Final thoughts

Blogging is hard work. But the bully quality is that you’re not alone. 

Plenty of bloggers person gone done the ups and downs. With that hard-won experience, they’ve charted the way for you.

All that’s near for you to bash is to instrumentality these blogging tips and get to work. 

Any questions? Let maine cognize on Twitter