What Is a Blog, & Why Should You Create One

Posted On Jan 9, 2020 By admin With Comments Off

Even if you’re not sure what a blog is, you’ve no doubt come across one at some pitch in time. Perhaps you’ve stumbled across a blog when you’ve probed “healthy dinner recipes”.

Alternatively, perhaps you used a blog to get more information on SEO programmes.

In fact, if you’re reading this, guess what? You’re on a blog.( Very meta, I know .)

If your business doesn’t have a blog, you might want to reconsider — B2B purveyors who usage blogs receive 67% more causes than those who do not, and blogs ought to have rated the 5th most trusted beginning for accurate online information.

At its most basic, blogs can help you develop an online existence, prove yourself a specialist in an industry, and lure more character leads to all pages of your site.

If you’re contemplating creating a blog for your business, or simply want to know what one is, keep reading.

What is a blog?

First, let’s go over a brief history — in 1994, Swarthmore College student Justin Hall is ascribed with the creation of the first blog, Links.net. At the time, nonetheless, it wasn’t considered a blog … time a personal homepage.

In 1997, Jorn Barger, blogger for Robot Wisdom, coined the call “weblog”, which was meant to describe his process for “logging the web” as he channel-surf the internet. The word “weblog” was shortened to “blog” in 1999, by programmer Peter Merholz.

In the very early stages, a blog was a personal web log or journal in which someone could share information or their opinion on a variety of topics. The report was affixed change chronologically, so the most recent post would appear first.

Nowadays, a blog is a regularly updated website or web page, and can either be used for personal consume or to fulfill a business need.

For instance, HubSpot blogs about various topics concerning marketing, sales, and work because HubSpot sells commodities related to such three themes — so, more than likely, the characteristics of readers HubSpot’s blog entices are going to be similar to HubSpot’s core buyer persona.

Alternatively, a woman named Kiki started a personal travel blog, announced The Blonde Abroad, to substantiate her travelling suffers and render books with helpful gratuities and excursion recommendations. Her blog doesn’t serve a larger company, but it does help her create a personal brand.

If a personal blog is successful fairly, the writer can also make money off of it via sponsorships or advertisements. Take a look at 5 Strategies to Monetize a Blog to learn more.

What is a blog upright?

A blog post is an individual web page on your website that dives into a particular sub-topic of your blog.

For instance, let’s say you start a pattern blog on your retail website. One blog affix might be designation, “The Best Fall Shoes for 2019 “. The post ties back to your overall blog topic as a whole( way ), but it also homes a very specific sub-topic( transgression shoes ).

Blog announces allow you to rank on search engines for a variety of keywords. In the above example, your blog berth could enable your business to rank on Google for “fall shoes”. When person searches for fall shoes and comes across your blog pole, they have access to the rest of your company’s website. They might click “Products” after they speak your berth, and take a look at the clothing parts your fellowship sells.

A blog post connections back to your overall blog site. For example, right now, you’re on blog.hubspot.com/ market/ what-is-a-blog. The “what-is-a-blog” section of the URL is held back to/ sell /, which is the blog as a whole.

There are plenty of benefits to blogging — it helps drive commerce to your website, it enables you to better convert that traffic into leads, it allows your business to establish authority in an industry, and it continues to help your business grow and entice new purchasers months and even years after publication.

To learn more about the benefits of blogging, check out Why Blog? The Benefits of Blogging for Business and Marketing.

1. To help your fellowship rank on search engines.

Typically, a business will use a blog to help the business’s website rank on search engines. You can utterly employ SEO tricks, or use paid ads, to help your company homepage rank on page one of Google — but a more effective, long-term solution is blogging.

To consider how your fellowship can rank on search engines via a blog, we’ll start with an example — let’s say you work for a entanglement pattern start-up with extremely limited online presence.

You decide to spend the first time writing and posting regular blog content that strongly relates to web design. Over time, your traffic increases and other corporations link to your place for information regarding web design. When this happens, Google recognizes your corporation as a legitimate root for network design information. Eventually( with a lot of trial and error ), your blog posts begin ranking on page one of Google for periods like “web design”, “website builder”, and “e-commerce website”.

Then, one day, you probe “web design firms in X city” and find your fellowship is now on page one. This is likely due, in massive part, to your consistent blogging efforts.

Take a look at How HubSpot Uses Blogging to Rank# 1 on Google to learn more about specific strategies you can implement to rank on search engines.

2. To share information about a specific topic and become an expert in an industry.

In 2006, Boston-native Matt Kepnes quit his job and began traveling the nations of the world. He documented his tours in his now infamous blog, NomadicMatt.com.

After about a year, thanks to tireless blogging efforts and SEO programmes that enabled him to rank on Google, he began pulling in $60,000. Matt too established e-books, and used sponsorships and affiliate sell to make money. Additionally, he wrote a New York Times best-seller, “How to Travel the World on $50 a Day.”

Now, Matt’s blog lures 1. 5 million tourists a month and grosses about $750,000 a year — and he’s become a well-known expert in the travel space.

If you want to become known as an expert in a topic that interests you, from fashion to blogging to fitness, you can — and, oftentimes, it starts with a blog.

3. To entice visitors to your site, and turn those visitors into leads.

There’s only so much traffic you can get from the homepage or About Us page of your company’s website. Of course, those sheets are essential for guides who are already interested in your concoctions — but they often won’t attract traffic from top-of-the-funnel. That’s where your blog comes into play.

Your blog can be a general reserve to help your website visitors even before those visitors are ready to purchase from you. For example, let’s say you sell makes for e-commerce collects. You might attract some e-commerce owneds who are already researching online for your produces, but in most cases, the e-commerce owner isn’t going to be ready to buy right out of the gate.

Alternatively, if you begin blogging about gratuities to help the retail owner who is just starting out — like “How to start a retail website”, or “Benefits of e-commerce vs. physical store” — you’ll slowly entice an public who enjoys your material and encounters it useful. Then, when those site visitors’ e-commerce accumulates begin proliferating( thanks, in part, to your blog ), they’ll once know about your brand and once trust it as a helpful root. That’s when they’ll check out your concoction pages.

4. To raise an online community and be participating in an gathering.

At the very least, you might create a blog to engage with an online community of readers with similar interests. Maybe you start a menu blog and invite readers to share their own recipes with you.

Alternatively, perhaps you start a blog that focuses on DIY projects. You announced the merriment, DIY assignments you’ve completed in your own home, and you ask your readers to share their own DIY gratuities in exchange.

1. Choose your target audience.

When you’re starting your own blog, it’s important to think of your target audience. Who are you developing the blog for? And who do you want reading your blog affixes? Before you can get started, you have to consider the niche you’re writing about and what topics you’ll cover and why.

Brainstorming your target audience is similar to creating a buyer persona for your company. Plus, this will give you an idea on what kind of content you want to produce.

2. Brainstorm content thoughts often based on your market segment.

Once you’ve started a blog, you’ll want to churn out high-quality, consistent content on a regular basis. This isn’t always easy. Creating content is a time-consuming task. You want to ensure your content is something your books would be interested in and hopefully can help with your SEO — more on that in a minute.

To begin brainstorming content, consider what your contestants are doing. Look for chinks in their content that you can fulfill. Additionally, you should also do SEO research to verify that users are searching for and interested in the topic you want to write about. Website like Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and Answer The Publiccan help.

You’ll want to brainstorm content frequently so you always have ideas that you can execute.

3. Research and remember a content conduct plan( CMS ).

In order to host your blog, you’ll most likely use a CMS. A CMS is a tool you can use to design, oversee, and publish on your website.

Once you’ve decided to start a blog, figure out if your current CMS has all the capabilities of hosting a blog. If not, you’ll want to review CMS options that might integrate with your website or look for an entirely new CMS to migrate your place on. The authorities have various alternatives in the CMS world including HubSpot, WordPress, and Squarespace.

4. Create a blog policy and editorial calendar.

Just like creating a business, you can’t create a blog without a strategy in memory. Your strategy should answer questions like 😛 TAGEND

Who are you targeting?

What type of content will you develop?

When will you announce?

Where will you promote your material?

Overall, you should have a mission, see, and points for your blog.

Then, create an editorial calendar to keep you organized and on track. A calendar will assist you track what posts are coming up, ensure scribes are converging deadlines, and assure you have enough content meanings for the foreseeable future.

5. Pay attention to article structure.

When you’re writing your blog berths, it’s important to consider the article structure. For instance, are you using subheads to break up the berth so it’s easy to digest? Are you exerting bullet targets and personas that stimulate the post easy to scan? These are important factors that will help keep your reader on the page.

Additionally, you’ll want to make sure that you’re apply calls-to-action( CTAs ), that will guide the book on what you want them to do next. This is how you can start making money and rendering leads-in from your blog.

6. Become an expert in marketing and promoting your blog.

Another element of blogging is selling and promoting your blog posts. It’s like the age-old adage — “When a tree comes in the lumbers and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a clanged? “

Consequently, if you write a blog post but nothing speaks it, will it have a positive impact on your company or brand? Probably not. That’s why you’ll have to market your posts. You can be utilized social media, SEO, your website, or your email newsletter to reach present and potential customers.

7. Learn about SEO.

Like I mentioned above, you want people to read your blog berths. One mode to do that ought to get organic freight through SEO. If you require your blog is efficient, learn how to research keywords, how to grade in search engines, and how to build an SEO strategy.

8. Use a range of blog pole modes.

Your blog poles should be interesting to everyone who predicts them, and especially for customers who read every single post. For those that are active followers and ambassadors of your blog, you should use a variety of blog post modes so your blog doesn’t get stale. Consider using how-to poles, list-based affixes, or envisioned leadership.

9. Repurpose old material.

Producing blog content routinely is also difficult. But you don’t have to reinvent the pedal every time you write a blog post. You can update aged blog affixes to keep them precise and exhaustive. Additionally, you can use other content of yours, perhaps a YouTube video or a podcast, and repurpose the contents into a blog post.

10. Act a competitive analysis.

To understand your audience, operated a competitive analysis on your top blog opponents. This will help you identify veers, uncover gaps in the contents in your manufacture, and give you meanings on topics and ways to promote your blog.

Running a competitive analysis will assist you build and iterate on your own blog strategy.

With a blog, the sky’s the limit — and so are the benefits for your business. If you’re officially ready to get started with your own blog, take a look at How to Create a Successful Blog Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide.

Alternatively, if you’re starting at the beginning and anxious about your first affix, read How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide [+ Free Blog Post Templates ].

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in February 2019 and has been revised for comprehensiveness.

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