27 Best Blogging Tips For Beginner Bloggers

Starting a new blog is an exciting venture, but new bloggers always have a lot of questions. Finding the best blogging tips for beginners is a challenge in itself.  

That’s why I put together this full list of blogging tips that will get you started on your blogging journey.

1. Choose Self-Hosted WordPress Website 

There’s alot of confusion when it comes to where you should host your blog.  Here are some of the common questions asked by beginner bloggers.

Should you choose a free blogging platform?  

There are several free blogging platforms out there to choose from.  If you just plan to blog as a hobby, this may work for you. 

If you plan to make money blogging someday, every successful blogger will tell you it’s best to choose a self-hosted WordPress website.  By doing so, you are setting the stage for success right from the beginning.

Which web host is best for beginner bloggers?

I’ve been blogging for about six years now and I’ve tried a few different web hosts.  

The first piece of advice I have is don’t choose Bluehost.  

Although they are a popular choice for new bloggers because of their low price, as your blog grows so will the price of your plan. 

Instead of Bluehost, you can choose my current webhost, Dreamhost.  Dreamhost offers unlimited traffic, so you don’t have to worry about your site going down if you have a post that goes viral.

You will pay the same price ($2.95/month) but you’ll have a lot more features than you’ll get with Bluehost.  For more details about how Dreamhost wins over Bluehost, check out this comparison post by Digital.com.

Get web hosting and a free domain for just $2.95/month with Dreamhost! Choose WordPress Unlimited for one year.

2. Choose A Clear Niche

As tempting as it is to write blog posts about your life, I highly discourage this.  Unless your life is something extraordinary that will draw in readers, it’s best to choose a specific niche and stick to it.

Get my free “Find Your Perfect Niche Workbook”

What is a blog niche?

A blog niche is the topic, or related group of topics, that your blog posts will all fall into.  You want to keep your content relevant to the readers you draw in, which means they’ll want more of the same from you.  

For instance, if you choose to have a food blog, you’d write about recipes, cooking hacks, your favorite tools for cooking/baking, etc.

Another example – you choose a lifestyle blog about parenting, you’d write about tips for raising children, family activities, mom struggles, etc.

For neither of those niches would you write about the rock concert you attended over the weekend.  You see what I mean?

Choose a niche and stick to it.

3. Write A Stellar About Page

Your about page is the second most visited page on your website so make sure you take some time to make it count.

• Include at least one photo of yourself to make it easier for people to feel connected to you.
• Write 1-2 paragraphs about you, including a few personal details you don’t mind sharing.
• Include a story about what inspired you to start your blog.
• Explain how you plan to help your readers with your blog.
• Write in the first person using “I” statements, as if you’re talking to your best friend.

If you’re still stuck, check out this post that shares 25 About Me page examples.

4. Include A Contact Page

Make sure you include a contact page on your website.  This makes it easy for readers to get in touch with you about your new blog.

You also want a Contact page for potential collaborators.  If someone has a blogging opportunity to share with you, they will usually use your contact page to do so.  

Keep your contact page simple.  Include a contact form with name, email address, and message section.  Also, include your email address somewhere near the top of the page so it’s easy to find.

5. Create Enough Content Before Launching Your Blog

So many new bloggers are afraid they don’t have enough blog posts to officially launch.  Instead they keep putting off launch date until the next thing you know, months have gone by.

The most important blogging tip I can give beginners on this topic though, is to just get launched!  Then, keep adding content until you have about 10 posts before going to a regular schedule.

You want Google to start indexing your content as soon as possible because it takes time to build a reputation and have your content start ranking.

How many blog posts should I write before launching my blog?  

You should have one blog post before launching your blog, for the reason stated above. 

However, I think that 10 blog posts is the perfect number to start off your blog with.  This gives plenty of related content for new readers to check out.

How often should I post a blog?  

After you have your ten initial posts, you can slow down to about one or two posts a week.  The more you write the better, as long as it’s quality content.

6. Claim Your Social Media Accounts

Even before you launch your blog, you can claim all of your social media accounts.  As long as you have your domain, start reserving your social accounts now.

If your domain is “cupcakeheaven.com”, you’ll want to claim cupcakeheaven as your username on all social media channels, even if you don’t plan to use them right now.

That way, no one else can claim them and steal your traffic.

What I mean by “claim” is to set up the following business accounts with your blog name:

• Facebook Page
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

You may not use them right away, but that’s okay.  They will be there for you when you’re ready if you set them up as a beginner blogger.

7. Saturate One Social Media Account

There’s a lot of hard work that goes into blogging.  Don’t overload yourself trying to be active on every social media platform.

If you spread yourself too thin, you’ll miss out on the opportunity to really connect with your audience.

Choose one social platform to really get active on.  I recommend choosing the one your specific audience hangs out on most.

Make sure you respond to comments and likes, and post content that encourages engagement.

8. Write In A Conversational Tone

Another blogging tip that I give beginner bloggers is to make sure you are writing your blog posts in a conversational tone.

Remember, you are trying to build a connection.

Also, your writing style is one thing that sets you apart from other bloggers in your niche.  

My suggestion is to write every blog post as if you are talking to your friends.  Feel free to use slang and be yourself!

9. Collect Email Subscribers From The Start

One blogging tip that will keep readers coming back to your blog is to collect their email addresses and add them to your subscriber list.  

Most blog visits, especially in the beginning, are one-offs that never return to your blog again.  If you collect email subscribers, you can email them each time you have a new blog post.  That way you stay on their radar, increasing your blog visits.

How do you set up an email list for a blog?

Sign up with MailerLite, a free email marketing tool.  Once you’re approved, you can add a sign up form to put on your website.

MailerLite has a free plugin that makes it easy to add sign up forms anywhere on your WordPress blog.

10. Send A Welcome Email

Once you start your email list, make sure you send each new subscriber a Welcome Email.

This email should include a few important details:

• A brief description of how your blog will help them
• Links to your active social media account with a request to follow you
• Links to a few blog posts for them to check out
• A quick question that requests a reply to the email

The welcome email has a high open rate and can actually start a relationship with your reader on a much more personal level.

Related Post: How To Write A Welcome Email Sequence With Free Templates

11. Email New Blog Posts To Subscribers

As I mentioned earlier, it’s hard to keep traffic coming back to your blog.  The easiest way to get repeat traffic is to email new blog posts to your subscriber list.

You can set up automatic campaigns in MailerLite that go out daily, weekly, or monthly, that will include all new blog posts since the last email.  

Sign up for a free MailerLite account here.

12. Write A Clickworthy Blog Post Title

Your readers have a lot of options when it comes to the blog posts they choose to read.  If you want them to read yours, first you have to have a title worth clicking on.

Here are a few pointers for writing the best blog post title possible:

• Use an accurate title for the post – no bait and switch!
• Use numbers to draw attention, such as:
  • 31 Free Places To Share Your Blog Post
  • This Brilliant Hack Saves Me 2 Hours A Day!
  • How I Lost 27lbs. In One Month

You should also use power words that invoke emotion like “free”, “brilliant”, “easy”, etc.

If you want to learn more about how to write clickworthy titles, check out this post by Digital Advocacy.

13. Gain Interest With Your Introduction Paragraph

Now that the reader has clicked through to your post, you’ll have to grab their attention quick to keep them reading.

Write an enthralling introduction paragraph that lets readers know right away that you’re going to deliver on what your title promises.

• Ask a relevant question that your blog post will answer
• Use humor to capture their attention
• Include a relevant famous quote to spark interest

You can learn a lot from Content Marketing Institute about writing introductory paragraphs that rock.

14. Make Your Blog Post Easy To Skim

I’m sure you’ve seen them – blog posts with 5,000 words that just seem to drag on and on.  If you’re like most people, you lose interest pretty quickly because too much text is just overwhelming to readers.

Your audience wants to acquire new information as quickly and easily as possible, and this goes for reading blog posts too.

• Use standard font and black-on-white – Don’t get fancy with your fonts because they can be hard to read. Also goes for text color; use black text on a white background for easy reading.
• Use plenty of white space – Write paragraphs of only 1 – 2 sentences and double space between paragraphs. Use a line-height equal to 150x your font size (if font is 20px, use a line height of 30px)
• Use titles and subtitles – Separate your content with section titles and subtitles for easy navigation of post content.
• Use a table of contents – If you’re writing a longer post or how-to guide, include a table of contents at the beginning of your post with anchor text (drops to appropriate post section when clicked)
• Use bullet points and numbered lists to draw attention to important information.
• Use images – Images help to break up large sections of text making the content easier to skim

15. Save Images Properly Before Adding To Blog Posts

Images can be an important element of your blog content so be sure to use them wisely. 

When you save the image, before you ever upload it to WordPress, you have the opportunity to boost your SEO.  

Simply change the default image name to a a keyword-rich name.  Instead of naming your picture of chocolate chip cookies “0133311.jpg” you can can save it as “best-no-sugar-chocolate-chip-cookies”.

Also, to keep your website running fast, don’t upload large image files.  Save as a .jpg instead of .png – you won’t be able to tell the difference and you’ll save space.

16. Use Alt-Text Properly In Images

This is a big question from new bloggers – “What is alt-text used for?”.

Alt-text is used for one purpose only which is to help visually-impaired users understand what the image is showing.  It does NOT boost SEO to use keywords in this field.  

If it’s a picture of a cow in a green pasture, type in exactly that.  

There, you have your official answer about alt-text 🙂 

17. Add Social Share Buttons To Your Blog

One of the best ways to get your content known is by readers sharing it to their social media accounts.  The only way they can share it though, is if you add social media share buttons to your posts.

Install the free “Social Warfare” plugin for beautiful share buttons that you can add to the top, bottom, or floating on the side, of every blog post.  Set it up once and it will add them automatically to every post.

I use it on this website, so you can see what they look like by checking the left of the screen or the top/bottom of this post.

While you’re there, please share 🙋

18. Ask For Social Shares

Now that you’ve installed your social share buttons, start asking your readers to share your content.

Sometimes, that’s all it really takes is a quick ask at the end of your post.  Just say something like “Thanks for reading!  I’d be so happy if you share this post on your favorite social channel!”.

This can increase shares significantly.

19. Ask For Comments

The same advice goes for getting readers to comment on your blog posts – just ask for it.

You can encourage more comments by asking relevant questions that get them thinking.

• Have you already tried any of the tips on this list?  If so, tell us in the comments section about your experience.
• Do you agree with my opinion in this post?  I’d love to get your feedback on this topic in the comments section.
• Let’s keep the conversation going – leave your comment or question below and I’ll be sure to answer.

Those are just a few examples of how you can ask for comments at the end of your blog post.

Just be sure that you answer any comments you do get!

All engagement with your content helps show Google that your an expert in your field, so the more engagement you get, the better!

20. Link To Your Other Blog Posts In Your Content

Another of the best blogging tips I can give to new bloggers is to always link to your other blog posts within your content.

Not only does it help Google understand what your blog is about, it increases your page views and the time spent on your blog.

I recommend sharing a link to at least two of your relevant posts in every blog post. 

If you do this in every post, you could have readers bouncing around to all of the content on your blog – building your authority and their trust in your brand.

21. Add Outbound Links To References In Your Blog Posts

We all have to do some research for every blog post.  Adding links to your references within your content can actually boost your SEO significantly.  

Linking out to high-ranking websites is called backlinking, and it’s something you want to be doing in every post.

Recommend related blog posts that go into more detail on a topic that you don’t necessarily cover on your blog.  

For instance, if you’re writing a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, you could add a link to an article about the different types of chocolate.  

22. Target Keywords In Your Blog Posts

We all want more traffic to our blog posts and the best traffic is organic traffic.  That means someone types in a phrase on Google and your blog post pops up in the search results.  We all want to rank on page one and with the right keyword strategy, it’s totally possible.

To get started with SEO and to start building your authority, here are some easy ways to target keywords in your content.

Decide on the keyword phrase that you want to rank for, then use that keyword in:

• Your blog post title
• Your permalink (URL to your post)
• In the first sentence of your introductory paragraph
• Sprinkled throughout your content (where it makes sense, no keyword stuffing)
• In your image file names and titles
• In one or two of your titles or subtitles (H2, H3, H4)

23. Add These Must-Have WordPress Plugins

There are thousands of plugins to choose from for WordPress and they all add different functionality to your website.

It’s important to remember that plugins should only be installed if necessary since they can slow down your site if you use too many.

Here are the absolute must-have plugins for beginner bloggers to be successful.

Optimole

Optimole is an image optimizer plugin.  It takes your uploaded images and compresses them so that your website loads faster, without losing the quality of the image.  As you add more and more images, this plugin will save your site speed significantly.

WP Cache

Every blogger needs a caching plugin and WP Cache does the job perfectly.  You don’t have to figure anything out, just install it and activate.  It will automatically remove cache from your website to save on space, again speeding up your website. 

Akismet

Akismet saves your blog from spam comments, which can quickly take over your comments if not installed.  

When you activate Akismet, you need an API key which you get by creating a free account.  It will then ask you to choose an amount to pay for the plugin – you can choose zero dollars, making this plugin free.

It’s an absolute must if you’re going to allow comments on your blog posts.

SiteKit by Google

SiteKit by Google lets you see exactly how much traffic you’re getting to your website and where it’s coming from.  This is information that every blogger needs, right from the beginning.

It will also show you any keywords that you’re ranking for in search results and which blog posts are getting the most traffic.

It also includes a site health section, which lets you know if things are running slow or if there are any other issues with your blog.

RankMath SEO

RankMath is an SEO plugin that helps you write better keyword-rich content.  It actually does a lot of things, but I’m going to share the two most important.

• Sitemaps and instant-indexing – RankMath automatically creates a sitemap and sends it to Google for you, so that all of your content is indexed. 

More importantly, in my opinion, you can click a button and have your blog posts indexed immediately! 

This is great because Google only crawls your site periodically and may not know about your new post for a month without instant indexing.

• Custom meta description – The meta description is the text that shows up after the title in a Google search result. 

This is automatically pulled from the first sentence or two of your blog post. RankMath allows you to change this description to whatever you want.

This may seem confusing right now, but as you get more familiar with blogging, you will understand more and more about the importance of good SEO. 

I wrote a great guide called SEO for Bloggers that you can check out if you’re ready to learn more about SEO now.

24. Join Blogger Facebook Groups

Starting a new blog can be very overwhelming because there is so much to learn.  To help you on this journey, there are several Facebook groups just for bloggers.  

These groups offer support, and they’re a great place to get answers to any of your blogging questions.

You can join Next Level Bloggers here, which is my group – perfect for beginner bloggers! 

Another awesome group is Blogging For New Bloggers, which has a very active community of new bloggers.

25. Get To Know Other Bloggers

It may seem intimidating at first, but getting to know other bloggers is a must for your success.  We are a very supportive community and we love to help each other grow.

Building a blogger tribe is also a great way to find guest post opportunities and collaborations.

Not sure how to get started?  Don’t worry, I have a couple of posts about it!

• How To Build A Blogger Tribe That Rocks
• The Importance Of Your Blogger Tribe

26. Hire A Blogging Coach

If you’re serious about making money with your blog, hiring a blogging coach can be one of the best investments you’ll make.

Working with a blogging coach gives you the opportunity to work with a professional blogger who will help you build a money-making blog, step-by-step.

Sure, you can do it on your own, but it takes a lot of time to learn all of the ins-and-outs of monetizing your blog.  Working with a coach speeds up that process dramatically.

You can book a free discovery session with me right now if you want to learn more about how blog coaching can help you.

27. Subscribe To Next Level Blogging

Yes, I’m going to plug my own blog and ask you to subscribe to my email list!  Why?

Because I write blog posts aimed at helping new bloggers build successful blogs. 

My mission is for you to grow your blog with more traffic, more subscribers, and to help you make money blogging faster.  You definitely don’t want to miss a post!  You can subscribe here and I’ll send you a free blog and goal planner for signing up.

Conclusion – Blog Tips For Beginners

There you have it!  Some of my very best blogging tips for beginners.  I hope you found this post helpful in your blogging journey.

Which of these blogging tips did you find most helpful?  Do you have a blogging question that I didn’t answer in this post?  Please leave your answers in the comments and I will reply!

If you’ll please do me a quick favor and pin this post or share on Facebook, I’d greatly appreciate it!