First off, what’s a blog?

A blog is almost an online portfolio of your content, your interests, and your opinions.

You can use blogging platforms such as WordPress, Medium.com, or Tumblr to post your content.

Blogging is a way of showing your work without having to include it in your resume.

It can also be a way for you to express your brand or business effectively to your prospects.

How does this apply to you?

This generally applies to those trying to build their internet presence.

This is a great way to gain credibility and to experiment with the type of content you intend to create.

Why you should start a successful blog

For a lot of companies and individuals, blogging a great way to share their vision and message through more palpable materials.

For example, if a business just tells you that they care about sustainability, the chances of you believing them is really low.

But if you come across the blog and you read a couple of posts.

You may be able to feel how genuine they are and passionately about this.

You will believe them.

What also matters, especially when talking about more complex topics such as data science, is the comprehension of your content by your readers.

When I was going to join LEAD, the first thing I did was check their online presence.

I came across their blog and I read a few posts.

Being a creative writing graduate, I naturally do not have a knack for data science, and I was afraid that I wouldn’t know anything.

That I wouldn’t understand anything about the data science industry.

By the time I read a couple of articles though, I realised that I actually knew what they were talking about.

This made me believe in LEAD and its mission to educate.

It came across and it felt genuine.

It also helps if you’re a fresh graduate.

I, for example, have a blog that I started as a school kid.

I started as a way to gauge people’s interest of my work and to see what I could come up with.

It ended up being a great way for me to experiment with my content, learn how to market myself, focus on consistency, as well as have an online archive of my work!

I didn’t expect it to do much more than that, but I was wrong.

Reuben, our Head of Marketing, actually looked me up before looking to interview me.

He noticed my online presence, had a couple of clicks about and found evidence of the work I cited in my resume.

It made me a more desirable candidate and showed proof of my skills.

But, how do you start a blog?

The first things first, find a site you like.

We recommend a blogging platform such as WordPress.

Most of us use it for our personal blogs and we also use it as a host for LEAD.

It’s very user-friendly and intuitive.

You can easily make posts, share videos, as well as images.

What should your content entail?

I’m going to talk about style.

When it comes to style, you need to experiment a lot, especially if you’re a new writer.

Your style is what makes you distinct.

It’s like when you read a line from a Game of Thrones book, even if you don’t know it’s a Game of Thrones book, by reading a line you will know.

Your style is the thing that sets you apart from other writers.

Think about it when you are searching for something on a search engine, there are always a million different results saying more less the same thing.

How’s yours unique?

What is your original perspective on the topic?

The only way you can make a difference is by making your style of storytelling distinct.

For example, you have to write an article on how to style slip dresses.

You are struck with the realisation that everything has already been done.

Especially in this day and age where media is at its prime.

So, the only way you can set yourself apart is by using your language in a humble and genuine fashion; one that really feels like yours.

It takes some time to do this, which is why you should start a blog.

Experiment.

Try different writing styles.

See which ones you feel more confident in, which ones your audience react to more, and which ones feels like your voice.

The next thing we need to look at is content.

What are you even supposed to write about right?

Feels like everything is already been done anyways.

There are almost too many competitors in every avenue.

I feel the same way. Every time I pick up a pen now, all I can think of is, “what is worth saying?”

So that’s your question, what do you think is worth saying?

Then build a plan.

When you are blogging and writing blog posts, especially when you’re starting out, it is important to find your voice through topics you believe in.

This could be writing fanfiction or writing poetry.

It could be on your political opinions, your mission to land on Mars, your fashion style, your passion for engineering, your gaming techniques, anything!

Find a blogging community that you relate to in order to find inspiration.

Now that you have a story, how are you giving your audience an answer?

Which problem of your reader’s are you trying to address?

Remember not to “sell yourself.”

Users can tell when they are reading a blog and every single post seems to be just them pushing forward their products or services.

Keep it real.

Especially when you’re new at writing or blogging, it’s integral to find topics you actually feel for.

Your audience can always tell when you aren’t passionate.

That makes it harder, especially because there are some topics you just can’t get excited about.

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Here’s an exercise I recommend.

Challenge yourself through this.

Write a blog post on an office chair.

You must think I’m insane, how do you find an angle you’re passionate about with that?

Think about it, you sit on one for most of your day.

It must do something for you.

You must care about the material or the height or the padding of your office chair.

Use that angle, make it connect with you.

Now, this doesn’t mean that at the end of this exercise you’re not going to be passionate about office chairs, but it goes to show that you can write honestly and genuinely for any topic.

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It takes practice but I know you’ve got it in you.

The next thing you need to get on as managing your engagement.

How do you manage your engagement?

When it comes to managing your content the biggest mistake that people make is not posting regularly.

You must remember that engagement is driven by constant contact.

This could be once a week, bi-weekly, anything! Just make sure you don’t stop and keep at a regular pace.

Going silent just ruins all the work you’ve been putting in.

It’s very important to create a schedule for yourself and get yourself in the habit of shipping.

Shipping is the concept of pushing out content.

It doesn’t just stop at posting your post on WordPress or Medium.com.

Shipping means to promote it.

This could mean sharing links of your posts on Instagram, on Facebook, putting them in your bio, and sharing it on Twitter with your friends and family.

This gives people the opportunity to see your blog post.

Then you can manage your engagement.

You can see how many visitors are coming to your blog and how many visitors are actually clicking on your posts.

You can now evaluate your click through rates.

Another way to increase this is by using search engine optimization.

This can be done through websites such as Ubersuggest for free.

So, for example, if you are looking to write a post on pet grooming so you would put it up on this website and see which common keywords are being used with this topic.

The results are would be for example pet grooming Penang pet grooming Puchong, pet grooming near me.

These would be keywords for you to implement into your content.

It makes your work search engine friendly.

You can add it to your google permalink and title as well.

This makes search engines your friend.

It ensures that when people type these quotes onto google, your work will show up.

This can help you find opportunities through customers, like-minded people, or potential employers!

What now: start a blog!

I’ve gone through all the reasons Reuben and I have to for you to start a blog.

Feel free to watch our video for even more insight we’ve got do’s and don’ts, recommendations, blogging tips, and advice from what we’ve learnt on our journey bloggers as ourselves.

I have linked my blog as well as Reuben’s blog here as well as our main website powered by WordPress.

As always, we would love to get linked to your blog to learn more about you and your passions.

We hope this was helpful.

You can always contact us at chelsea@leadio.com for more information or for any sort of advice, we are always happy to help!