The blog scored As for Search Engine Optimisation, Usability, as well as Social and Security aspects. Only the aspect of Performance has room for improvement, owing to the page size which is big (due to the ads).
This article is for fellow bloggers and companies doing content marketing as a lead generation strategy.
Where to publish your stuff
There are many, many, many options available for someone who just wants to get their thoughts and opinions out there. Among them are WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Steem, Livejournal, Medium and Nocturnal (Malaysia-based so give free backlink!)
Then you can also publish on social media i.e. Facebook, Twitter (micro-content), Instagram, YouTube (vloging), stuff like that.
About 30% of all websites in the world use WordPress. The community is amazing, and there are specialised guides, experts and services that have been available for it all this while.
If you use WordPress (or are exploring it), come join the WordPress Meetup Kuala Lumpur FB page.
If you want to use other options, that’s cool too. Just know that some options will limit
Hosting matters a LOT
The hosting = the company that provides the server that keeps all of your blog data. You don’t need to worry about hosting if you publish on free platforms.
To create a blog that is fully customisable and allows the implementation of many types of monetisation strategies, you MUST pay for hosting.
For one, [blogname].wordpress.com or [blogname].blogspot.com is long and may show you’re “not serious enough”. Two, you can’t do certain things like add Adsense to your blog.
Slow websites will make people leave your page. When was the last time you waited for more than 10 seconds for a page to load before losing patience and abandoning it entirely?
If you’re targeting a Malaysian audience, make sure your website loads fast in Malaysia. It will make a big difference.
Sticking to a niche
Imagine you’re on Instagram. You follow this one profile for their, say, fitness-related content. Then one day they just start posting about random things that have nothing to do with fitness, like gardening or whatever. Would you still follow them?
Right? Confusing as hell. If they don’t go back to fitness, or at least make it crazy entertaining, you will probably just unfollow them.
Knowing this, WHY would you lump every and any topic in your blog? Unless you are a celebrity, no one really wants to know about your life. Hurts but there you go. Real talk.
Of course, your primary motivation to become a blogger in the first place is because you want to write about what YOU want to write about.
But there is a fine line between balancing what you want to write versus what people want to read. It must provide value to the audience. It must be educational and/or entertaining.
That’s how you make them come back and hopefully follow you. You’re known as that subject matter expert.
But you don’t have to be an expert to write about it. Not at all. Obviously, it’ll help by giving you authority, but it’s not a requirement.
Don’t lump Lifestyle + Food + Travel + Fashion + Others together. Pick one overarching theme, then do whatever you want as long as it fits that theme.
For example:
• Exploring Malaysian street food under a Food blog
• Nature photography in Country Z under a Travel blog
• Your workout routines under a Fitness blog
• Toy reviews under a Parenting blog
• Beauty reviews with ingredients breakdown under a Beauty blog
Ringgit Oh Ringgit’s overarching theme is personal finance, so whatever topic – travel, food, tech, life, etc – has a personal finance angle. Travel posts become budget travel posts. Food posts become grocery shopping hacks.
Learning how to market your blog
Publishing your content in a blog does not automatically bring in traffic. There are many ways to increase traffic to your blog. Some strategies:
• SEO
• Paid ads
• Guest blogging (publishing your content to another source with a wider audience)
• Creating a community
• Long-form content
• Organising giveaways
• Organising contests
Paying for a bunch of stuff to improve and maintain it
Aside from the hosting costs mentioned above, you have to paid for:
• Logo design
• Software and tools
• Transportation costs to events and stuff
• Reports and audits
• Premium theme (website design)
• Solving technical issues
With each investment I make, you’ll get more traffic, which translates to more $ opportunities.
Posting regularly and consistently
People will stop visiting if you don’t publish regularly. This is common sense, but yeah just have to put it out there.
Everybody wins – you, the audience, the companies wanting to reach your audience – everybody. You don’t have to defeat competitors to stay ahead, because there’s enough room for all to cari makan.
Unless you truly don’t care about the money, and just want to write for fun, and don’t care about people reading it or not, then sure. Making content for the sheer joy of making content is a beautiful thing too.
But for most, they want to turn blogging into a viable side income stream. They want that ad money, or attract (high-paying) clients or customers, or AT LEAST gain another type of currency – reputation and respect among their peers.
This article first appeared in ringgitohringgit.com
Suraya is a corporate writer-for-hire and the blogger behind personal finance website Ringgit Oh Ringgit. She is more of a minimalist, less of a consumerist, a konon DIY enthusiast, a let’s-support-small-businesses-over-big-corporations kinda girl. Prior to her current role, she worked in various capacities within the non-profit industry.