{"id":17723,"date":"2024-02-09T15:38:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T15:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webmonkey.com\/what-i-wish-i-knew-before-i-started-blogging-blogging-tips-for-beginners\/"},"modified":"2024-05-24T19:39:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T19:39:16","slug":"beginner-blogging-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webmonkey.com\/beginner-blogging-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Wish I Knew Before I Started Blogging – Blogging Tips For Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite things about blogging is that even after running WebMonkey for more than a year<\/a>, there is always more to learn when it comes to growing a successful blog.<\/p>\n

Content planning, marketing, graphic design, SEO…the list of tasks associated with blogging seems endless, and I have certainly gone through periods of uncertainty and confusion when it comes to blog management.<\/p>\n

Now, I've already written a blogging SEO basics post, and other posts that aim to help novice\/intermediate level bloggers grow their audience and make more money<\/a>,  but I want to expand on those helpful resources by discussing some of the greatest mistakes or missed opportunities I experienced when first starting my blog.<\/p>\n

I've definitely been lucky to have a lot of great people share their blogging tips with me over the past year, so I figure it is time to pass some of them on! Additionally, I hope that by outlining some of my own blogging mistakes and missteps, you can avoid some unnecessary aggravation and setbacks and fast-track towards success.<\/p>\n

On to the blogging tips!<\/p>\n

Note: these are actionable blogging tips, not shit like ‘just be yourself,' or ‘know that blogging is hard work' We're here to grow our blogs, not sing Kumbaya!<\/p>\n

Blogging Tips for Beginners – Organization<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I'm going to break this post into a few different sections, but the most foundational advice I can give for new bloggers relates to organization.<\/p>\n

Without a sense of your blogging direction, goals, or action plan, you run the risk of aimlessly working away at a project that doesn't even have a purpose or outline. Hopefully some of these organizational blogging tips can help set things straight!<\/p>\n

Don't Start With Too Many Categories<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Let me preface this entire post by saying that a lot of the mistakes I made when starting WebMonkey are either still present or have only been patched up slightly (some mistakes are hard to revert, and I also need to put more time into fixing things).<\/p>\n

WebMonkey is, to be blunt, a complete mess. It's better now than it was in the past, but it really is a spattering of money making\/money saving ideas, blogging tips, and bits of marketing\/tech talk.<\/p>\n

I'm personally okay with this, but I know that I didn't help myself by writing about several different topics at once out of the gate. For the first few months this blog was truly all over the place.<\/p>\n

If I could redo the launch of my blog, I would have only had 2 categories: making money and saving money. I would have spent a few months filling out those categories before adding an additional category such as investing or marketing…think of it like adding layers to the foundation of a house before moving on to other parts.<\/p>\n

If you are starting a new blog don't bite off more than you can chew! Pick 1-3 categories to start with and really flush them out with content before expanding.<\/p>\n

Extra Reading – <\/strong>45 Blog Niche Ideas & How To Pick A Niche<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Use A Content Map\/Planner<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A blogging content map can help keep you on track with your content, maintain a consistent brand image, and even improve how you utilize on-page SEO to link between your articles.<\/p>\n

At the start of my blogging journey I didn't plan anything. I just wrote posts as ideas came to me, and that's why I was publishing social media marketing guides one day and hating on Bitcoin the next. It made no sense.<\/p>\n

As I mention in my post on how to start a successful blog<\/a>, even a simple Excel spreadsheet that maps out your post ideas and what articles will link to them can go a long way in keeping you organized:<\/p>\n

\"blogging-content-planner\"<\/p>\n

Do yourself a favor and map out at least 10-20 post ideas before launching or in the early phases of your blog!<\/p>\n

SEO Blog Tips for New Bloggers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Once you have your blogging organization down to a science, there are some critical search engine optimization tips I think you should follow!<\/p>\n

Use The Right URL Structure from Day 1<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you've ever taken a look at my blog permalink structure, you'll notice that I include the date in all of my URLs.<\/p>\n

This is not intentional. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact I hate that my blog currently does this.<\/p>\n

\"blogging-permalink-structure\"<\/p>\n

There are 2 main disadvantages to including the date in your URLs.<\/p>\n

Firstly, adding the date to your URLs lengthens them, and shorter URLs are generally better for marketing\/are more use friendly.<\/p>\n

Secondly, including the date in your URLs means that if you ever update your old content (which you should do regularly), you're either forced to change the URL entirely and redirect the old article to updated version or to just keep the date the same.<\/p>\n

Personally I update the ‘time of publication' whenever I edit old posts so there's at least some new change (hopefully Google knows to crawl these articles for new information, but I am unsure if this is the case) to avoid having to redirect. I know this is a band-aid solution and I should migrate to a standard permalink structure, but I like to suffer needlessly I suppose.<\/p>\n

So, for this blogging tip, check your permalinks before you spend months publishing content like I did!<\/p>\n

To check how your URLs will be structured, go to Settings <\/strong>and then Permalinks <\/strong>in the WordPress back end:<\/p>\n

\"blog-permalink-structure\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

A subtle change, yes, but an important one!<\/p>\n

Don't Wait Too Long to Obtain Backlinks!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I mention some of my blogging mistakes in my post on the journey to a $100\/month blog<\/a>, and waiting to backlink was certainly one of the main ones.<\/p>\n

Backlinks help boost the authority of websites in the eyes of Google, and they are one of the most important ranking factors out there. In short, the more do-follow backlinks you have from high quality websites (that are also authoritative), the better.<\/p>\n

Anyways, I don't think beginner bloggers should worry about backlinking for the first few months of blogging or <\/strong>until their blog has enough content to not look skeletal.<\/p>\n

However, once you have 15-20 posts you should definitely start putting some effort into obtaining backlinks from relevant websites within your niche.<\/p>\n

\"backlink-progress\"
You can see I finally started putting in some backlink efforts around May<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I took about 5-6 months before I actually started paying attention to my backlinks, and this was a significant mistake.<\/p>\n

Once you have enough content, you should consider some of the following methods to start obtaining more backlinks to your blog:<\/p>\n