Amateur blogging is a type of small business. Bloomberg says that 80% of amateur blogs are expected to fail in the first 18 months.
I always find it fascinating to share my thoughts with other people, and I usually talk about writing, reading, fitness, and life advice.
Just like any other teenager, when I was fourteen, I felt like nobody listens to me or understands me. And that’s when the idea of sharing my thoughts and opinions through blogs crossed my mind.
When I started writing blogs on Reddit, LinkedIn, and other platforms, I realized that there were a lot of other people who could relate to me, and that made me feel seen, understood, and happy.
I needed an amateur blogging guide for me to know the whole process.
Blogging can change our perspective on life. It is almost overwhelming how great I felt when my blogs had thousands of reads.
But I did not reach that point overnight. I started with amateur blogging at one point.
What is Amateur Blogging?
Just as the name suggests, amateur blogging is the beginning part of the blogging journey.
It is the starting phase when one logs into a blogging platform and then starts sharing their life events, thoughts, opinions, etc.
Amateur blogging is usually for fun or a hobby, and certainly, it is not for making money. One always tries to learn in the amateur stage of blogging. And anybody who is making money off of their blogging, they have been through the amateur blogging phase.
In my initial stages, I didn’t know how to write, never wrote a blog, and considered blogging as a source through which I can vent in front of the whole world. That was my amateur blogging stage.
How to start a blog as an Amateur Blogger?
Firstly, I would suggest you believe in yourself.
Since you already want to start to write, let me know to tell you that you have chosen something productive.
Blogging will help you in getting knowledge, improve your interpersonal skills, uplift your leadership qualities, and more. It will also boost your self-esteem and will make you self-aware to a great extent.
The best blogging platform is WordPress, but there are many other platforms available for blogging purposes. You are free to choose any of them, whichever suits your style the most or with which you are comfortable.
You can visit the website of WordPress or download it on your phone through PlayStore or AppleStore. Just follow the instructions and within a few easy steps, you will be good to go.
The steps are mentioned below:
- Log in to WordPress.
- You will need to pick a name for your blog.
- After that, you will have to choose a niche on which you are gonna write.
- The next step is crucial where you have to choose a hosting provider. There are a number of quality hosting services like SiteGround, GoDaddy, and even Elementor Cloud hosting,
- Next, select and install a theme for your blogs.
- Hire a web designer to start your blog.
If you have completed all these steps, then CONGRATULATIONS! You are all set to start your amateur blogging.
Is Income Essential for an Amateur Blog?
Income is certainly not essential for an amateur blog.
Amateur blogging is usually for beginners and the ones who are learning how to blog. It is usually to build a personal brand for yourself and showcase your work to other relevant people.
By showcasing your work and letting other people know what you are interested in, they might offer you a good job.
All I am trying to say is that income is not essential for an amateur blog. Because since you are not professionally blogging, and you are in your learning phase, then you might keep low expectations regarding this.
What Amateur Blogging topics are most popular?
I would ask you to follow your heart and blog about the things that you want.
But in case you want to increase your audience reach and you might be wondering how you could increase the engagement of your blogs. Let me tell you some topics that are trendy and if you blog about such topics, then you would definitely see an enhancement.
Technology
With the increasing advancement in technology, machine learning, and AI, you should not leave this topic behind.
A recent AI software, CHAT GPT, is very trendy and a lot of people are talking about what kind of revolution it will bring to the technological world.
You can always write about the new software, gadgets, phones, laptops, etc., and give them a review. It is not a bad option to start your amateur blogging.
Travel
Do you like traveling? If yes, then it is going to be very easy for you to write your travel blogs. You can share opinions about some places, hotels, food, etc.
Consider you visited Rome, and you loved going to the Colosseum, then you can write about your experiences there. Or if you are not able to travel to so and so places, then you can always blog about the nearest restaurant, cafe, park, and more.
There are a number of travel bloggers who started as an amateur and now making six figures in income through their blog.
Fashion
Who would not like to read or write about fashion?
I mean fashion is something that everyone is influenced by. Imagine if you saw some dresses by a designer and you like it a lot, then you can blog about that too.
The trends in fashion are changing continuously, which means that you always have something to write a blog about. People are always fascinated by celebrity news and what they are wearing. That is also a great way to grab the attention of readers.
Business
Which business is failing and which one is at its peak? You can talk about the marketing strategies of different businesses.
You can always share relevant information about the successful and failed startups in your amateur blogging. How did they become successful and why did a certain startup fail? People who want to start a business will always be interested in such blogs
Lifestyle
Talk about your lifestyle, luxury, income, etc. All Gen Z and millennials love to read about fashion and it has a different fan base. You can talk about how to improve the standard of living and generate more income.
Interior designing, household gadgets, clothes, cars, etc. are some relevant topics regarding lifestyle that will grab the audience’s attention.
In your amateur blogging stage, it is a great topic to focus on.
Finance
You can always talk about cryptocurrency, blockchain, and other finance-related topics. The stock market is something that a lot of investors are interested in.
They would love to read your blogs if you are providing some relevant information to them.
Is Amateur Blogging worth it?
I can give you a 100% guarantee that if you start amateur blogging, then you will never regret it. The reason is that you would never fail to learn something.
If you are passionate and willing to learn new things, then amateur blogging will reap the results.
There is always something new to learn every day and you would acquire knowledge abundantly about your niche, and you could have a full-grown conversation about it with an expert in that particular field.
If you are interested in sharing your thoughts and opinions with the world then the world will welcome you with open arms.
If you surpass your amateur blogging and become a pro over time, then guess what? You can also earn money through your blogs. Isn’t that amazing?
I would say to start your amateur blogging today itself. Just take those small steps every day and one day you will see a big difference.
What Are The 10 Amateur Blogging Mistakes To Avoid?
Now that we have talked a little about amateur blogging, and its process, we should know what mistakes we can make as amateur bloggers.
Why am I telling you about the mistakes that I have made in my amateur blogging phase? It is because I don’t want you to repeat the same mistakes that I did.
I want you to be aware of these points and not do the best for yourself.
Let’s see what are those points:
Unoptimized Content
Optimizing your content means that you need to create or write your blogs most effectively so that the readers can use the information for the best.
Optimizing for your reader is necessary because it will build engagement and allow your audience to connect with you.
You gotta optimize the content in a way that is interesting to read, interact and share. In this way, you will be able to build credibility for your blog and people would rely more on it.
There are a few steps that I would suggest you follow to optimize your content.
First things first, understand the needs of your audience. Write about the things that your audience would like to know and more about.
Google provides you with a lot of data regarding the most searched keywords.
Secondly, you should know what to include in your content.
What are the keywords that are suitable for your blog, and also the pictures that are needed to be in there?
Also, you can take the help of some external links through which you can win the trust of your readers and increase their reliability.
Thirdly, make your blogs look professional, and do not provide messy content that might appear to be confusing for the audience.
Always remember to help your audience by providing the information, and do not forget to provide your own solid opinions as well.
Not treating Blog as Business
That is one of the most common mistakes that people do- not treating blogs as a business.
There is a reason that I am asking you to treat your blog as a business. What could it be?
Let me try to answer the question.
Imagine if you want to start a business then what is that one thing that comes into your mind? For me, it is the investment that I am going to start the business to start.
In the same way, you need to invest in your blog. You can buy a paid version of any blogging platform like WordPress.com or Blogger.com. This will provide you access to several different tools through which you can enhance the quality of your article.
You need to set up hosting.
Here comes the real investment which is buying a domain name for your blog. I have invested a good amount to buy the domain name. And for that, I needed to choose a reliable hosting platform.
I would suggest you to Hostinger or Bluehost.
If you want to surpass the amateur blogging stage, then you must get an SSL certificate. It will ensure your audience that your website is safe to use. This will also act as a green signal and invitation for the readers to visit your blog as many as they want to.
Learn SEO optimization, and make sure that your website has a good ranking in Google searches.
Take advantage of push notifications for reminding your audiences to read your blog when you post them. It will also keep your audience updated.
Do not get confused with multiple niches
Niche is the topic that you write your blog about. So, let me explain why it is important to stick with a certain niche for amateur blogging.
I think that it is very obvious that a guy who is interested in traveling blogs might unfollow you after you post something about fashion. And the guy who is interested in fashion blogs might never visit your website again because he saw content regarding finance on your website.
So, to collect a certain type of followers and generate traffic on your website, you are supposed to target an audience with a common interest.
To keep the readers interested in your blogs, you need to work on the same niche.
Choosing a particular niche will also help in increasing the credibility of your website. People would assume that you are an expert and you know a lot about that niche or topic. They will also listen to your advice and opinions which will give a certain power over your reader’s minds and how you are influencing them.
Choosing a long domain name
I will tell you why it is prominent for you to choose 2 to 3 words for a domain name. There are so many reasons.
Let me start with number one which is:
- It must be easy to remember for your audience if your domain name is as small as one word or a maximum of three.
- It should also act as the first impression that your audience gets about your website. So, make sure that you get out of the amateur blogging stage by making a strong impression.
- You should give a unique name to your website, which excites your audience and makes them wonder about what information your website is having.
Use Social Media for Marketing
When everyone is using social media then why aren’t you? At least when everyone is using social media for wasting their time on Instagram reels, you can use social media to promote your blog.
Instagram and Facebook is something that has versatile content niches and also has a big range of audiences. Not only would you be able to connect with millions of users, but also you could interact through comments and direct messages with them.
Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, etc. are also considered to be great platforms to promote your amateur blogging. If you have professional content then you can promote them on LinkedIn.
Not creating backlinks from beginning
Backlinks are a type of hyperlinks through which you can jump from one website to another website using a link. Providing backlinks in your blogs to a certain good source of information will allow the audience to trust your blogs.
If somebody came to your blog through a backlink, then Google thinks that you are a reliable source of information. Which in turn, increases the ranking of your website in Google searches.
Being Impatient
One thing that I have learned in my journey of blogging is that you can turn yourself from an amateur blogger to a pro overnight. You need to keep calm and patient in yourself. If you keep working hard, smart and not giving up on your blog, it will eventually blow up.
And you will gradually become a pro blogger.
Not Indexing pages
Indexing is necessary to check for an amateur blogging person. I always used to check if my website is mentioned on Google’s Index. You will need to do a site search for the home URL of your website.
There are ways through which you can get your website listed in Google’s Index. This usually happens when other websites refer to your website through a link. Get your websites linked with other websites so that Google can find you through those links and put you in Google’s Index.
Also Read: Best Blogging Platforms To Make Money
Conclusion
I am pretty sure that I have given you enough information about the dos and don'ts of amateur blogging. It's never too late to start!
If you have read the article this far, then I can say that you are interested in creating a blog. Do not let anything hold you back from doing that.
Login to WordPress and customize your website, and take the help of the many tools and plugins in WordPress.
Make sure that you choose a particular niche for your blog and do proper research for gathering as much relevant information as you can.
I hope this article has helped in gathering all the relevant information for your amateur blogging guide.