Six years ago, when I started my first blog, I knew absolutely nothing about starting a blog or blogging. I kept searching for information and “how-to” articles on major search engines and tried my best to learn and practice as much as possible. But now, I have built and managed more than 20 different blogs, both on the Blogger and WordPress platforms, and have also learned a lot about blogging and blog management.
Starting a blog is very easy and does not require any advanced coding skills (HTML) which is one of the major reasons why there are millions of blogs existing on the Internet. Some are project management-related blogs.
In fact, project management blogs are growing in number on the Internet. So, you need to focus on how you can create a successful blog that stands out from the rest. But, if you are still hesitating on whether to start your own project management blog or not, I suggest you read my article titled “Top 13 Reasons Why Your Company Need a Business Blog”.
So, here are a few tips for launching and building a successful blog:
1. Decide Your Niche Topic(s)
There are a lot of project management blogs on the web already. If you want to attract readers, you need to focus on a niche that you are knowledgeable about and will be interesting to your audience. When I started my first blog, I was really interested in Network Marketing, so I picked that topic. Don't just blog about anything, discover your passion and build your blog around your passion. However, if you do not have any idea which topic or niche you want to blog about, think about your hobbies or just start blogging about your daily activities or memorable moments.
2. Choose Your Blogging Platform: Free or Self-Hosted
WordPress is currently the most popular blogging platform on the Internet. In fact, it has over 65 million downloads and is used by many popular blogs. If you an absolutely free blog, you can start a sub-domain blog on either the Blogger (projectmanagementnigeria.blogspot.com) or WordPress (thelekkernetworker.wordpress.com) platform. But if you want to have a WordPress blog hosted on your own domain name, like jerryihejirika.com, you can get this for as low as N5000 (domain registration plus hosting fee) per year.
3. Writing Your First Blog Post
In the blogging world, content is KING. Your first blog post should tell us who you are, why you decided to start a blog, what you will be blogging about, and how you plan to engage with your readers because this will set the tone for your blog. If your first post contains these elements, I think your business blogging efforts will be off to a fine start! Do not forget to write your bio profile in the bio section.
4. Create Your About Page
Create an "About” page to highlight your background, education, experience, skills and mission, and promote your project management practice or business. Include links to your portfolio, your firm or organization, and other information.
5. Update Your Blog Regularly With Quality Contents
Posting regularly will keep your blog fresh and attract more readers. There is no exact rule on how often you should post as updating your blog depends on some factors such as your time availability, your blog topic, and how often your readers expect to see a new content on your blog. However, most professional bloggers will advise you to post daily especially when you are new to blogging so as to gain more visibility either from the search engines or from other readers. But, make sure you always create quality contents so as not to turn your readers off. You can also incorporate audios and videos on your blog.
6. Promote Your Blog
Once you start your blog, you will need to actively and constantly promote it to create more awareness and generate more traffic. There are different ways to promote your blog which include submitting your blog to bookmarking sites, social media networks and blog directories.
7. Engage Your Readers
If you are looking forward to building a successful blog, you have to start with the most basic of all things: creating a blogging community. Engage your readers through comments and discussions to develop a loyal readership. Post content that is exquisite, controversial or informative, ask open-ended questions, start a conversation and encourage readers to comment on specific blog posts. But don't be frustrated if your readers are not commenting. Just by visiting your blog and reading your posts (as you're currently reading mine), readers are engaging with it. Most times this is overlooked in favor of a more “obvious” form of engagement like comments or social media likes. Tools such as polls can also help you engage your readers as well.
8. Utilize SEO Tools
The majority of your readers will find your blog through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Therefore, it is essential to optimize your contents and pages so they rank high on search engines results. There are free SEO plugins you can install on your WordPress blog that you can always use to optimize your contents and pages.
9. Utilize Web Analytic Tools
Most web analytic tools, will not only measure your web traffic, but also allow to assess and improve the effectiveness of your blog. Google Analytics is the most widely used on-site web analytics service; although new tools are emerging that provide additional layers of information such as heat map. Examples are Clicky and CrazyEgg.
These are the basic tips to starting your own project management blog. If you need a blog, but do not want to undergo the stress of starting, promoting or managing your own blog, then you can subscribe to any of my professional blogging or social media services.
If you are an African Project Management Blogger, you can share your blog on JerryIhejirika.com with other readers.
Did I miss any relevant blogging tips for project management professionals? Share them in the comment section.
Six years ago, when I started my first blog, I knew absolutely nothing about starting a blog or blogging. I kept searching for information and “how-to” articles on major search engines and tried my best to learn and practice as much as possible. But now, I have built and managed more than 20 ...
#Blogging, #ProjectManagementBlogger, #ProjectManagementBlogs, #StartABlog
No comments:
Post a Comment