33 Proven Blogging Tips for Beginners (+ Pro Insights)

Looking for beginner-friendly blogging tips you can use to start or grow your own blog?

We’ve got you covered!

In this post, you’ll learn 33 proven blogging tips for beginners. Use these to improve your strategy and take your blog to the next-level.

You’ll also get pro insights from experienced bloggers and entrepreneurs with years of hands-on blogging experience.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Subscribe to Blogging Wizard to get free access to a PDF version of this post with additional expert insights, and a bunch of extra resources to help your blog thrive.

1. Focus on a specific niche

When you focus on a niche and write on one topic, those interested in that topic will find all your content relevant and valuable. And you can quickly attract a loyal group of readers, increase your organic search traffic and grow your blog faster.

This is one of the most important blogging tips for beginners.

To pick the right niche for your blog as a new blogger, do your research and answer the following questions:

• Will this topic still appeal to you in a year’s time, or after writing over 60 posts?
• Can you find enough people who’re interested in this topic?
• Is it possible to make money writing about this topic?

2. Identify and learn about your target audience

Before you start writing at all, take steps to identify and understand your target audience.

In case you’re wondering, your target audience is a group of people with similar needs, characteristics and behavior who read your content because they get value from it.

As a newbie blogger, you can identify your target audience when you do thorough research, look at competitor’s audience and create an audience persona or avatar. 

You also need to know their age range, gender, geographical location, educational level, marital status, profession or occupation, pain points and so on.

Here at Blogging Wizard, our target audience are new and advanced bloggers, content creators and entrepreneurs who want to turn their passion into a business that thrives.

3. Craft a tagline for your blog

With a catchy tagline, new blog visitors can quickly discover the purpose of your blog and who you serve. A tagline can also catch the attention of your target audience, and convince them to explore and spend more time on your blog.

To create a tagline for your blog, state who you create content for and what you help them to achieve.

For example:

• My blog helps university students who wants to pass their exams with ease
• My blog helps stay at home moms who wants to make money online

4. Use the right blogging platform

There are so many free and paid blogging platforms available such as WordPress, Ghost, Medium, Squarespace and so on.

If you’re serious about growing and making money from your blog, you need a platform that’s SEO friendly, simple and easy to set up, requires no coding skills, has various customization options and can accommodate you as you grow.

For example, WordPress is a blogging platform that’s popular with experienced and new bloggers. It has many SEO features and gives you complete control over your blog. 

You can even customize it with thousands of free and paid plugins like contact form plugins, page builder plugins and lots more.

5. Choose a solid web hosting provider

You need web hosting for your blog to go live and some of the best providers include Dreamhost, Kinsta, Cloudways and more.

To choose a solid web host and start blogging, consider your answer to the following:

• What is your budget?
• How quickly can this web host load pages?
• Do they offer several server locations plus a CDN service?
• Can they accommodate traffic fluctuations and spikes?
• Do they provide 24/7 support?
• What level of security do they provide? 

Dreamhost is officially recommended by WordPress and is one of the best web hosts for a new blogger. They provide quality and affordable web hosting that ensures your blog loads fast and is always available.

6. Pick the right blog name 

Are you aware that your blog name also serves as your domain name online?

Your domain name is the address of your blog on the internet. Once people type your domain name in their browser, they’ll be directed to your blog.

To buy and register your domain name as a newbie blogger, check with a domain name registrar if the name is available. Also confirm the availability on your preferred social media platforms.

You can choose the right blog name when you consider the following:

• What is your blog niche?
• Will your blog name remain relevant if your niche changes?
• Do you want to build your brand around your name?
• Is your blog name easy to type, pronounce and spell?
• Does it read okay written in a domain URL format?

Need help? Check out our post on domain name ideas for 21 catchy and memorable ideas you can use.

7. Make your blog easy to navigate 

Your blog will be easy to navigate when you have four to five blog categories that’re subtopics of your main topic.  

With each blog post arranged under relevant categories, people and search engine crawlers will find your blog easy to navigate and understand. And this can drive more traffic to your blog.

For example, Cookie and Kate is a food blog with categories like breakfast, salad, soup, dinner and so on.

8. Identify your monetization strategies

You can make money from your blog when you treat it as a business and identify blog monetization strategies to focus on.

To choose the best ways to monetize your blog, consider your niche, blogging goals, business model and audience needs.

Here are some useful blog monetization ideas:

• Create and sell online courses
• Earn affiliate marketing commissions for promoting other people’s products
• Provide services like consulting, coaching, freelance writing, etc.
• Offer sponsored posts to others at a fee
• Accept donations
• Create digital products for sale

9. Have an about page

On your about page, new and repeat visitors can learn about you, your brand, the purpose and mission of your blog and everything you have to offer.

You can write an engaging about page when you:

• Introduce yourself and your brand with a summary
• Share how you can help your audience achieve their goals
• Tell stories about your experience, achievements and failures
• End the page with one call to action

Take a look at this about page example from the Enchanting Marketing blog:

10. Optimize for mobile

These days, most people go online using their smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

According to Statista, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 58.33% of global website traffic in the first quarter of 2023.

Without mobile optimization, your blog won’t show up properly on smartphones and tablets. And this can annoy people and drive them away from your blog.

But when optimized for mobile, content and images will display properly, fonts will be easy to read, images and videos will load fast and visitors will have a great user experience. 

11. Ensure your blog loads quickly

When your blog loads very fast, you can engage and convert more readers, attract repeat visitors and drive more traffic.

According to statistics:

• The average webpage load time is 3.21 seconds
• Sites that load in one second have a conversion rate of 39%. But this reduces to 18% if loading takes up to six seconds
• 82% of consumers confirm that slow page speed impact their purchasing decisions

Aim for a page load time between one and three seconds because the faster your blog page speed, the better.

Your blog can load very fast when you use a quality web host provider, compress images and always check if your hosting plan needs an upgrade or not. 

Also:

• Upload videos to video hosting sites and embed them on your blog.
• Choose a high-quality WordPress theme
• Install a WordPress caching plugin
• Connect to a content delivery network (CDN) if your web host doesn’t provide this service

12. Improve the security of your blog

To improve the security of your blog as a new blogger and protect it from deadly attacks, use a reputable web host with strong security features, create and use strong passwords and install security plugins.

In addition:

• Keep your passwords safe with an excellent password manager
• Update your blog software, themes and plugins promptly
• Install a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate on your blog
• Use only plugins and themes from reputable sources
• Regularly, backup your blog and do security audits

13. Install Google Analytics

Once your blog goes live, install Google Analytics to track and measure relevant performance metrics. 

This will help you stay updated on what’s working or not, quickly identify and resolve challenges and grow your blog faster.

Here are some popular blog performance metrics to measure:

• Sources of traffic
• Number of daily, weekly and monthly blog visitors
• Bounce rate
• Most viewed content or blog pages
• Website speed

Google analytics is a great web analytics tool for new bloggers. The main benefit is that it’s free and only larger companies are likely to need a paid plan.

However, there are many Google Analytics alternatives such as Clicky Analytics, Matomo, Semrush, Kissmetrics, Hotjar and so on. Some of these are far easier to use.

14. Develop a blog content strategy

Your blog content strategy can give you focus and direction, encourage you to treat your blog as a business and also help you stay on track to achieve your goals.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming.

You can just list out your content goals, arrange them in order of priority and identify the type of blog content you need to create to achieve each goal.

Such content goals can include:

• Create content that rank on the first page on Google
• Create content that attract links
• Create content that engage your audience
• Create content that convert readers to customers

15. Use an editorial calendar

Also called a content calendar, an editorial calendar can help you plan your blog content, weeks, months or even a year in advance.

You can use it to organize and prioritize blog post ideas. And attach time deadlines to various stages of your content production process, such as writing, editing, creating images, proofreading and publishing.

As a new blogger, all these can help you stay organized and productive, meet deadlines, publish consistently and achieve blogging success faster.

You can find free editorial calendar templates online or create one using tools like Trello, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Notion and so on.

Here’s a free content calendar template from Trello:

16. Do keyword research & understand search intent

Keyword research is the process of finding relevant keywords your audience uses, so you can create keyword optimized content, boost your search engine ranking and drive more organic traffic.

For example, if you blog about healthy diets, relevant keywords may include:

• Healthy diet plan
• Healthy diet plan for weight loss
• What are healthy diets?

However, search engines will also rank your content on how well it matches search intent.

Put simply, search intent is the reason behind a keyword. Different types of search intent exist and it varies from one keyword to another.

If you can do keyword research to identify relevant keywords, convert them to blog post ideas, create quality content that satisfies search intent, then search engines will likely rank your content high.

You can also use some great keyword research tools like Keyword Tool, Ahrefs, KWFinder, Semrush and so on.

17. Create quality content that provides value

You can start blogging and create quality content when you write longer blog posts that provide:

• Answers to questions your audience keep asking
• Solutions to their pain points and challenges
• Tips and tricks to help them achieve their goals

Your content will also provide value when you get content ideas directly from your readers and also:

• Identify popular content from your Google analytics and create more of such
• Back up your points with relevant data, statistics and research findings

Once you always create and publish valuable content, don’t be surprised if search engines always rank them high.

18. Start with multiple blog posts

Planning to start blogging with only one blog post? That’s okay, although your blog may look scanty for a start. 

But when you launch with a minimum of three to five posts:

• Your first set of visitors will have more than one blog post to engage with
• Google and other search engines will have more content to crawl
• Your blog site won’t look so empty or scanty

Launching your blog with a decent number of posts can quickly raise your credibility as a blogger, improve the engagement of your first set of visitors and most likely, boost your search engine ranking

19. Optimize for on page SEO

Also called on-site SEO, on page SEO is a type of search engine optimization (SEO) for blog posts and other pages on your blog. It can increase organic search traffic and your blog’s visibility online.

To optimize for on page SEO, use your target keyword:

• In the first 100 to 150 words of your content 
• As close as possible to the beginning of your title
• In your URL and meta description

You should also reduce image and file sizes as necessary and in addition:

• Keep your URLs as short as possible
• Use H1 and H2 tags as appropriate
• Write a description known as Alt Text for all images

Of course, you can use on page SEO tools to handle a lot of these. And for WordPress users, there are SEO plugins that can help you hit the ground running.

20. Craft compelling headlines

Are you aware that 8 out of 10 people will read a headline copy but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest?

Your headline is a one-line statement that quickly communicates your blog post’s value. It’s so powerful that most people choose to read or ignore a blog post based on the headline alone.

To create compelling headlines, here are some popular headline formats:

• Question
• How To
• Guide
• Steps
• Tips

You can generate blog title ideas and even review and improve their quality with headline tools such as SEOPressor blog title generator, CoSchedule Headline analyzer and many others.

21. Make your content easy to scan and skim

For over 13 years, research showed that online readers don’t read word for word but only skim and scan.

So, producing content that’s easy to skim and scan for online readers means delivering content in an easy to absorb format. 

To achieve this, avoid writing large blocks of text, write short paragraphs and sentences and also:

• Include images and visuals in your content
• Use the right font and font size
• Include headings and subheadings in your content
• Use bullet points and numbered lists

22. Include CTAs in your blog posts

If you want readers to do something specific after reading your blog post, include a call to action(CTA).

In digital marketing, your CTA is a persuasive phrase that invites online readers to do something. Without it, most people will just read your content and leave.

You can write a CTA copy that converts when you keep it short, use power words and action verbs, write in first person and also include words that create a sense of urgency.

Some blog CTA examples include:

• Learn more
• Download now
• Sign up for free

Check out this image at the bottom of our posts here on Blogging Wizard, asking readers to sign up for our newsletter:

23. Add internal and external links

Internal links connect relevant pages and content on your blog to each other. It also guides visitors and search engines to related content.

Without internal links, search engine crawlers may struggle to find some of your blog content.

On the other hand, external links connect your blog post to another blog or website and guide readers to relevant content outside your blog. For best results, avoid linking to irrelevant content, competitors in your niche and non-reputable sites.

When done right, having relevant internal and quality external links in your blog posts can provide more value for readers, increase your blog SEO, boost the authority and credibility of your blog and increase website traffic.

24. Edit and proofread before you hit publish

Your blog posts may contain typos, wrong spellings and bad grammar, if you don’t edit and proofread always. This can reduce your blog quality, irritate and annoy interested readers and cause them to stop reading.

So, create time to edit and proofread more than once, before you hit publish.

For best results, take a break once you finish writing before you start to edit and proofread. This will give you fresh eyes that can spot all the errors and mistakes in your content.

Of course, you can also use grammar checkers like Grammarly, ProWritingAid and so on.

25. Avoid plagiarism at all cost

Plagiarism involves copying and pasting other people’s words, phrases and ideas in your content verbatim, without giving credit to the source.

This can damage your credibility and cause you to lose the trust, respect and loyalty of your audience.

You can avoid plagiarizing when you acknowledge and credit your sources by listing them at the bottom of your content or linking to the content you’re quoting from.

You can also run your content through plagiarism detection tools like Grammarly, Copyscape, ProWritingAid, and so on, before publication.

26. Publish new blog posts consistently

When you publish new blog posts consistently, maybe on a daily, weekly, biweekly or even on a monthly basis, your readers will know what to expect from you

This can help you gain their trust and loyalty faster, attract repeat visitors and increase organic traffic.

To choose the best posting schedule for you, consider your content goals and strategy, your audience and your availability.

Also, try more than one posting schedule to identify your best one. And as your audience grows, consider asking them through surveys and polls.

27. Recommend related blog posts

When you recommend related content in your blog posts, readers can quickly find more blog content without searching.

Place such recommendations in the middle or at the end of your posts so interested readers can click those links, read more content and spend more time on your blog.

This is a great way to boost reader engagement.

For example, Livestrong offers healthier lifestyle tips and often recommends three or more related content within their blog posts.

28. Publish different types of content 

You can attract and engage members of your audience who enjoy variety, when you publish different content types and blog post ideas that provide value.

For example:

• How To posts e.g. How To Make Money On Twitch: 10 Proven Methods
• Beginner guides e.g. How To Start A Blog – The Beginners Guide
• Listicles e.g. 30 Free Advertising Ideas To Grow Your Business
• Response posts e.g. What Is A Lead Magnet?
• Comparison posts e.g. 15 Best Online Course Platforms (Comparison)
• Original research e.g. 15 Best Selling Items On Ebay (Original Research)

29. Promote and share your blog posts 

Since over 2 million blog posts are published daily, don’t sit back, fold your arms and wait for people to find your content on their own.

Instead, promote and share your blog posts widely, so more people can discover them faster.

You can share your blog posts with email subscribers and also on relevant:

• Social media channels like Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
• Niche social bookmarking sites like Zest, BizSugar, GrowthHacker, etc
• Online communities like Facebook groups, Slack channels, Discord groups, etc.

You can also add a link to your latest blog post in your email signature. And even use content promotion platforms like Sendible, BuzzStream, Outbrain, Taboola, etc.

All these can get more eyes on your content quickly, drive increased traffic and grow your blog faster.

30. Repurpose your blog posts

You can repurpose new and old blog posts when you convert them to another format like an eBook, a video, an infographic, a Facebook post and so on.

For example, we published a blog post titled:  How To Stand Out Online – 43 Experts Share Their Top Tips a while back on Blogging Wizard. It had over 5000 visits and 2000 social shares.

Later, it was turned into an infographic and published on another site, which attracted an extra 35,000+ visitors.

Done right, repurposing your blog posts will save you time, energy and resources, help you create a variety of content faster, attract readers, engage more people and increase organic traffic.

31. Show up on social media

With more than half of the world’s population on social media, both new and experienced bloggers need to be active on relevant social media sites.

Different types of social media sites include:

• Traditional social media like Facebook and Twitter
• Image sharing platforms like Instagram and Pinterest
• Video sharing networks like YouTube and TikTok
• Social messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram
• Forum style networks like Reddit and Quora

For best results, identify one or two social media channels where your target audience hangs out and sign up. Learn how they work, define your social media marketing strategy and tactics, engage constantly with your audience and followers and track relevant metrics.

Also, add relevant social sharing buttons to all your blog posts so readers can share them on social media. You can even use social media management tools to achieve more.

Being active on social media can advertise your blog widely, drive huge organic traffic, generate leads, promote your content, build backlinks, boost SEO and lots more.

32. Build and grow your email list

In digital marketing, an email list is a list of email subscribers who gave you permission to send them emails.

Once you start blogging, also start building your email list because:

• Email marketing is the best way to connect one on one with your audience
• You can segment your email list and provide personalized irresistible offers
• Email marketing has a higher return on investment compared to any other marketing channel

To build and grow your email list, create a valuable lead magnet, have a dedicated landing page, place your opt-in forms on relevant pages and make it super easy for people to sign up.

33. Network and build relationships with others 

As the chief marketing officer of your own blog, you can achieve faster blogging success when you collaborate, network and build relationships with other bloggers in your niche, plus even business blogs in related niches.

Whether you’re a new blogger or an experienced blogger, this is one of the most important blogging tips to pay attention to.

Here are some steps you can take: 

• Provide useful comments on other blogs in your niche
• Develop a guest blogging strategy, then pitch and write guest posts for other blogs
• Engage with other bloggers on social media
• Mention influencers and successful bloggers in your blog posts and let them know
• Join thriving online communities in your niche
• Interview one or more influencers in your niche and publish an interview blog post
• Become a guest on podcasts in your niche

These relationships can quickly boost your credibility as a new blogger, advertise and promote your content far and wide, drive more traffic and help you grow your audience faster.

Start and grow your blog successfully!

With these blogging tips for beginners and experienced bloggers, you can confidently start your blogging journey and grow a successful blog.

However, don’t expect to make money quickly because it takes time, patience and plenty of work.

Be prepared also to get positive and negative feedback. And don’t let the negative ones discourage or stop you.

In essence, implement these beginner-friendly blogging tips one after the other, remain focused, avoid common blogging mistakes, have fun and enjoy yourself on your blogging journey.

Good luck!

Subscribe to Blogging Wizard to get free access to a PDF version of this post with additional expert insights, and a bunch of extra resources to help your blog thrive.