14 Blogging Ideas For Beginners (What You Need To Know First)

Being a newbie blogger is quite scary. You’re dealing with complicated language and words such as “sitelinks“, “algorithms” and the scariest one…”content creation“.

Content creation is the biggest hurdle a lot of aspiring bloggers face, so today I’m going to share some blogging ideas for beginners that will hopefully get you going with your writing and blog building.

Further down, I’ll also be telling you about a few simple things you can do to speed up your blog’s success. Here are my top 14 blogging ideas for beginners.

Talk About What You Know First

When first starting out, you should most definitely talk about what you already know. Don’t talk about stuff that you have no idea about otherwise it won’t take readers long before they realise you’re kind of a fraud.

Remember; picking a blog topic to write about that you already have experience in is key too to be able to talk about it so before you start blogging, make sure you pick a topic that you know about and enjoy.

On your first few posts you should get what you know out there. Solve as many problems as you can. You can always learn new stuff later but in order to establish credibility… write about what you know.

Do Some Keywords Research

A fundamental part of creating your content is to target keywords. One mistake I did in my early days of blogging (and sometimes still today), is I do not create content that targets a keyword.

It is so easy just to write about anything with no direction but unfortunately that does not lead to rankings and readers.

You need to do keyword research to find out what people are looking for, then you create content that answers their question.

To find out more about keywords research, read my “introduction to keywords” post.

Be Different

If you think your blog topic has no competition, you’re wrong.

There are so much blogs and content being written that it would be highly native of you to think that nobody else is doing what you’re doing.

You have no control over that. You do, however, have control on making sure you are different.

Always try to make your blog posts as unique as possible.

Write from your own experience with a topic. That is why I love writing this blog you’re reading now. It’s all about what I go through every day while running my blogging business.

There’s a lot of blogs that blog about blogging but nobody is ever going to have the same experiences as I am having so I write about those.

Obviously straight copy-pasting is a big no-no too so don’t do that.

Write Like A Conversation

You know what “boring content” is to me? It’s when I’m reading a post that sounds like something you would read in the doctor’s office.

Do not write like how you write, like how you talk.

Think of it this way and it will make sense:

Image explain something to some over the phone or face to face. Think of how the words will flow. That is how you should write your blog posts.

Does this make sense?

Don’t Try To Be Perfect

This ties in to my previous point but it’s so important that I had to honor it with it’s own heading.

Do not try to be perfect.

When I’m mentoring people at Wealthy Affiliate, most new bloggers say that they will “publish their content once it’s perfect“.

There is no such thing as the perfect content.

I sure as hell don’t write perfect content and that is ok. I might even have a few spelling mistakes here and there but it’s not the end of the world.

Plus you need to remember that when starting out, very few people will be reading your blog posts (sorry to break it to you) and the ones that do would not care that much.

Just focus on creating content that is informative and/or entertaining.

Obviously, you should not create “bad content” on purpose, just do your best and keep writing, it takes practice to become a better blogger.

READ: The 1 Thing You Can Do Right Now To Improve Your Blogging

Leverage Social Media

Getting ranked high enough to get visitors from search engines is going to take some time but getting traffic from social media can start happening as soon as you publish.

As soon as I hit publish on this post, I’m going to go over to my Pinterest and share the images you see on this page (created with Canva) and I’m going to get traffic.

I’m a big fan of Pinterest and it is where I spend most of my time. I even wrote a guide on how to get traffic to your blog from Pinterest. Feel free to check it out.

You don’t have to make Pinterest your main one, just pick one and focus on that. If you can do more one then go ahead; the more the better.

The thing is; for social networks to be beneficial to you, you need to be super active and also have time to engage with followers. Trying to do that on all major social networks is going to take time away from building your blog.

PS: Leave a comment below if you came from Pinterest-land! 🙂

Write Longer Content

This may not be the ideal blogging tip for a beginner but I want you to get into the habit of creating long form content as soon as possible.

I know if you’ve never written an article in your life, getting past 500 words is going to be difficult (I know I’ve been there), but as I’ve said above, practice makes perfect.

The reason you should be creating longer content is because long-form content ranks much better than short articles and usually tend to be more informative.

I used to say a minimum of 700 would do but I’ve since changed my mind and I think 1000 should be the bare minimum for a post.

I repeat, I know it’s hard but try. If you do it everyday then I’m sure you’ll get good at it and that is going to be very beneficial to building a successful blog.

Consistency Is The Key

One thing I often see asked is “how often should I post?“.

The answer is just be consistent.

Meaning; if you can do one post a day, do one post a day but never miss a day. If it’s once a week, twice a week or even twice a month, make sure you’re consistent with your blogging.

There is nothing worse to growing a blog then publishing 7 posts in one week then nothing for two weeks.

Be consistent with your blogging and you will see results.

Scheduling Is Always Good

Learn how to use the “Schedule” button on WordPress. It’s a life saver and it helps you be consistent with your blogging.

Sometimes I get a boost in creativity and motivation and I end up writing 3 posts in a day, other days I just can’t even be bothered to log into my blog.

Scheduling however lets me schedule my posts for once a week (that is my posting frequency) and since I’ve been using this feature, I have never missed a Wednesday when I didn’t publish.

I find scheduling posts frees me up to do other things for my business. Also I don’t have to “force” a blog post on the day I need to publish.

Right now I have 6 weeks worth of posts that are ready to be published so technically, I can stop blogging for 6 weeks and my business would not be affected.

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(Some More) Blogging Ideas For Beginners

Now that I’ve discussed ideas for creating content, I want to give some more extra tips on how to properly start your blog.

These following tips will help you in starting your blog business on the right foot:

Minimize Expenses

It’s going to take a while to start seeing some income from your blog so minimise expenses as much as you can.

• Don’t pay for a premium theme (although I do suggest you do so in the future).
• Don’t hire writers (write your own blog posts)
• Don’t hire graphic designers (your blog’s graphic needs can be handled with Canva.com)

One thing I would suggest you pay for is some training, which I will be talking about soon.

Start Collecting Emails From Day One

The best way to keep visitors coming back to your blog is email marketing.

Start collecting emails from day one if possible and although you won’t see much results at first, having it there from the get-go will be very beneficial in the long run.

Now most email management systems cost money (I use Aweber) but there are free ones you can use. A good place to start is Mailchimp.

I think it gives you some limitations (as a free user), but to get you going and experienced with email marketing, it’s great.

Should You Monetise Your Blog?

Hmm this is debatable because I’ve seen some say that you should monetise as soon as possible, but I personally think you should avoid all monetisation until you start getting some traffic.

The reason why I say this is because search engines do not like blogs that sell. They like blogs that deliver informative and entertaining content.

In my opinion, monetizing from the very first post will seem like you’re just here to make money.

Sure you might make some money off the 3 visitors a day you can expect in the first few months of your blog’s life, but is it really worth it?

I’d rather much build authority as the go-to-place for information first, then sell later when the traffic is already coming in.

What you can also do is monetise your email list funnel. If you want to make money as soon as possible then try monetising the emails you send out to your subscribers.

That is of course if you follow my tips and start an email newsletter as soon as possible.

Where To Start Your Blog

Definitely WordPress. Don’t look anywhere else because you will regret it in a few months time.

Google’s Blogger, Tumblr, Medium and other blogging platform are good too but to build a business around blogging, you need the power and flexibility of WordPress.

Here is how you can start a WordPress blog, for free, today and in just above 1 minute. It’s the simplest way I have found to build a WordPress blog.

Get Training Or A Mentor

A few paragraphs up, I recommend you invest in some training or a mentor and I’m going to tell you why this is super important.

Blogging and the online business world is a bit complicated and as a beginner, you can easily end up making some mistakes that may be fatal to your blog or slow down your progress tremendously.

That sucks. I’ve been there. I know how it feels to work on a blog for 6 months then realise you were doing it all wrong.

If you want to get into blogging, get yourself a mentor or get some training on the subject.

I would like to be your mentor.

I like to see people succeed in blogging and making an income from their passions so I would love to be your mentor.

All you have to do is subscribe to my email list and you would have one-on-one access with me anytime you wish. We can even Skype if you’re up for it. I offer this service for free to my subscribers and my students over at Wealthy Affiliate.

Which brings me to my next point… training programs:

I am constantly seeking out products that teach people blogging and I review them all on my blog. The best ones I have found so far are these 3:

• Wealthy Affiliate.
• Income Society.
• Blogging With John Chow.

If you join any of these 3, I can guarantee you that you will have a deeper knowledge of how to start a blog and make money off it.

Please note that I suggest WA as my top recommended program because I can guarantee you one-on-one mentorship with me and other top ranking members.

On the other two, it’s just not possible.

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Phew that was a long post! I hope you’re still with me.

If you are then I thank you, and I honestly hope I brought you some value and some great blogging ideas.

Do not hesitate to leave a comment below with your questions. I answer all my questions as soon as I can so you can expect an answer in less than 24 hours.

Thanks again…

Chris Lee