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When starting a side income blog, there are some tips to take into account to make your blog posts more appealing, but it’s a good idea to make sure the foundations for your blog have been set up first.
To set your blog up, you will first need to register or acquire a domain name, get webhosting and then WordPress is recommended, so it can be downloaded from WordPress.org and installed on your webhost.
As the WordPress installation comes with starter themes, you will now already be ready to start blogging, however it’s a good idea to work on creating a unique layout for your blog. To do this you will need a WordPress theme.
The optimal way to create a WordPress theme is to code it from scratch, but that has a very steep learning curve, as HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript knowledge are required.
You can purchase or find a free or paid theme. Your WordPress installation comes with access to many free themes under Appearance > Themes > Add Theme, or paid themes can be purchased from theme marketplaces such as Envato Market.
Another option is using a theme page builder, such as Beaver Builder, which will allow you to build a fully responsive WordPress theme using a drag-and-drop visual interface.
Some tips to make creating content more appealing:
- Refine your content to your niche or subniche topic and keep your readers in mind. Doing this will also help you to gain authority on your given niche.
- Think of your whole blog when creating content and keep it structured.
- Add your opinion but keep your content factual.
- Make use of media, including infographics and YouTube videos where possible. Infographics translate information from your text into digestible visual aids, improving user experience (UX) and strengthens brand identity. YouTube videos expand your reach to people watching videos and improve user engagement.
- Try to create good titles and expand your article on them. A good title is important as it will form your URL-slug. Your URL-slug is the part of your URL that reflects your post. Doing this also has search engine optimisation (SEO) implications.
- Use paragraphs and short sentences, rather than big blocks of text. This will help your articles to be scannable and more easily digestible.
- Rather than repeating words, try to use synonyms to keep your users engaged.
- Utilise internal linking and external links to help improve UX and for SEO benefits.