Blogging isn’t the game that it used to be. Gone are the days of easy money for anyone with good writing and basic web design skills. The blogosphere is now heavily saturated, so if you want your blog to stand out, then you’re going to need to start it on the right foot. We’ve covered how to start a blog the right way in 2019 before, but this article is specific to WordPress blogs.
One of the most important components of a good WordPress blog is that it is easy to navigate. You should only use as many menus and navigation items as you need in order to enable users to access all your content. That means that you should be aiming to keep the number of navigation elements and menus to a minimum.
WordPress gives you a high degree of flexibility when it comes to deciding where your navigation menus will go and how the user will interact with them. It’s worth playing about with the different options here until you find the one that works best for your blog.
A Consistent Output
Variety is the spice of life, and there’s nothing wrong with mixing up the content on your blog now and then. However, it is important that there is some level of consistency in the posts you make. You can cover a variety of topics, but you should try and focus on one general area or niche for the bulk of your output.
Using your blog as an online portfolio is becoming more common. This article from Google designer Martijn van den Broeck explains the benefits of using your blog as an online portfolio. However, if you choose to go this route, then it will help a great deal if you can demonstrate that you have a particular aptitude for your blog’s main focus. For example, if you’re going to apply for positions writing about videogames, it will help to have a blog full of articles about videogames. You can cover related subjects that will also be of interest to your audience, but there should be enough game-related content to showcase your skills.
Find the Right Plugins for Your Site
One of WordPress’ best features is its plugins. The platform is already very versatile; you can use WordPress to make pretty much any kind of blog you want. But by adding plugins into the mix, the potential of WordPress increases exponentially.
Plugins range from antispam protection to more niche plugins like this WordPress email plugin from Sendinblue. Sendinblue provides a number of tools for devising and managing email marketing campaigns. If you plan on running an email marketing campaign, you can combine these tools with their WordPress plugin to enhance their effectiveness.
Once you have all your plugins in place, it’s then up to you to fill your blog with content. The best long-term marketing tool is good content. If you publish posts that people want to read, you will gain an audience.
