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10 Tips to Setting up Your Blog the Right Way

Jim Brown

Whatever your goal behind blogging, if you want to succeed with it make sure to follow these proven tips for setting up your blog the right way . These tips can also be seen as the basic rules to setting up a blog. Tens of thousands of successful bloggers worldwide have followed these tips to create brands out of their blogs.

1. Start with a Great Domain

A great blog needs to have a great name. The first step to having a successful blog is to create a great domain name.It should be as short as possible. There are certain free online services that help you with domain ideas. It is always recommended to get a .com extension, but .org and .net can also work as long as your domain name is perfect.

2. Choose the Right Theme, Style & Template

Select a theme and style focused on your target audience. There will be hundreds or even thousands of themes to choose from.It should also maintain consistency across all your pages. It should also be easy to navigate and be easy to the eye.When it comes to style, it should be something that allows your readers to focus on your content. Not something that’s distracting.

3. Prepare Engaging Listing Page

This is where your blog posts will grab the visitors’ attention. The listing page should provide minimal but valuable info to make them click through to your posts. The listing must have the following:

  • Title
  • Image
  • Author name
  • Preview

4. Install the Right Plugins

When it comes to plugins, it’s all about functionality. Don’t overdo it. Focus on your goals and choose plugins that help you address those objectives. The right plugins can increase your blog’s functionality multiple times.

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5. Set up Tags

Tags tell the world (and search engines) what your blog is about. You can always expand it as you chalk out your future calendar of posts. To start with, you should add basic tags that your blog will revolve around.The tags should be key phrases related to what you will be writing about or the central theme.

6. Subscriber List, Form & Emails

Start with your subscriber forms and make them as simple and easy-to-fill as you can. Complicate it and you’ll lose new subscribers. If people like your posts or theme, it’s highly likely they’ll sign up for your email updates.It is also recommended to allow them to determine how often they want to be notified.

Once the forms are set, create your subscriber emails. Follow these rules when designing your email updates:

  • Start with a ‘welcome email’ to thank them for signing up for your updates.
  • Send out emails using a name your subscribers identify. Else they are least likely to open your emails.
  • Your emails should provide nothing more than preview text so that readers can open your posts. If you send out entire posts, it can be overwhelming to them.
  • Add CTAs to encourage them to click and read your post.

7. Managing Your Comments

This is one of the most important sections of your blogs and make sure you manage them carefully. Depending on your topic and a few other factors, you can manage your comments based on different rules:

  • You can allow comments on all your posts. You can later delete any comments which are spam.
  • You can approve comments before they are published. It is the recommended method.
  • Closing comments after a specific number of days.
  • Set up a level of comments. When there are threaded comments, direct replies can be made.

Comments play a key role in helping your blog succeed. This makes it so important to allow people to interact with you using this platform. An even more important aspect of comments management is to respond in a timely manner. Remember, your interaction in the comments section also plays a role in building your reputation as an authority in your field.

8. Add Social Sharing Buttons

Today, anything people find interesting or useful, they are highly likely to share it within their network. So make sure all your blog posts are sharable on the leading social networks.Allow both your mobile and web visitors to share your posts with just one click. This will further help you increase exposure and traffic.

9. Call to Actions

You must have a goal behind a blog and that should form your CTA. Your CTA could also be the path you want your visitors to take after they go through your posts. This could be another post or page.The right CTA can also help add more value to their experience on your blog.

10. Develop Author Profiles

Your blog can have multiple contributors. Author profiles not only add more value to your blog, they also enhance your site’s SEO.

Instead of creating long paragraphs, it is recommended to create few sentences with links to the author’s social media accounts. When someone wants to learn more about an author, they can visit their social profiles.

So follow all these tips if you want to ensure how to make sure your blog is set up properly.

Conclusion

When done the right way, blogging can turn into a magical experience where your traffic grows exponentially. If you have a passion for a topic or field, nothing should stop you from starting a blog focused on it. As already indicated above, it is always best to create a calendar of your posts. This can be a monthly, fortnightly or weekly calendar depending on how frequently you post.

Even while you follow the above-mentioned 10 tips to set up an effective and successful blog, it is important to be regular with your posts. Blogging is not something you can start and forget. If you want to drive traffic and achieve your goals, regular and high-quality posts are important. Choosing the right web hosting provider is also an important consideration. So follow all these points and you will be able to create a great blog. Since blogging is more an art, there is no limit to what you can do to make your blog successful.