Thinking about starting a personal blog? Interested in sharing your life, work, and personal experiences through blogging? Whether you have a passion for writing or aim to make money online, this article is here to guide you!
Whether you have skills and expertise to write about or just want to ramble on about your life or personal history, a personal blog can do wonders for your mental and emotional well-being and your bank balance.
So, let’s delve into the world of personal blogging and explore what you need to do to get started and enjoy the rewards that come with it.
Table of Contents
What is a Personal Blog?
A personal blog is a website where you have the opportunity to share your thoughts, opinions, and interests with a wider audience. It serves as a platform for expressing yourself and connecting with others who share similar passions or interests.
Personal blogs can cover a wide range of topics, including:
- Personal growth
- Self-discovery
- Hobbies
- Interests
- Opinions
They are usually maintained by the blogger directly.
Later in this article I’ll discuss typical personal blog topics you find online as well as some more unusual topics you can cover. The choice is yours, you can cover any topic you like – it’s your blog after all!
These blogs are typically maintained directly by the blogger, allowing for a more authentic and personal touch to the content.
So I should blog about my life?
If you want to. It’s entirely up to you. You can blog about your hobbies, interests or share your skills, expertise or your personal opinions on topics.
Do you know who you audience will be?
It’s important to figure that out. Understanding your target audience will help you tailor your content to their interests and preferences. Additionally, if you plan to make money from your blog, spend some time considering the topics that will be easiest to monetize.
The internet is large so no matter how niche your topic you will probably find an audience if your content is high quality and entertaining.
Research your niche and target audience before your start writing
Benefits of Personal Blogging
Let’s consider some of the benefits of personal blogging.
Self-expression
Journaling is considered a great personal practice that can reduce stress, enhance your focus and boost your creativity. Well, you can think of your personal blog as journaling – but online, to an audience.
It can be cathartic to write down your thoughts and opinions. It can be satisfying to share your expertise and knowledge with other people. Many people find blogging satisfying, completing a blog article fills you with a sense of self accomplishment.
Building an online presence and a personal brand
If you run a personal blog, you are a content creator. You belong to a very small, exclusive group of people! Let’s look at the stats:
- 90% of people are passive consumers.
- 9% of people engage with content (share, retweet, like, comment).
- 1% create content – and that’s you if you have a personal blog!
It feels great to be part of a community that creates original content for others!
As you create content, you will gain an audience and start developing your own personal brand.
Opportunities to make money from your blog
I have a whole section on this topic later in the article, but I wanted to bring it up here. The larger your blog’s audience, the more opportunities you will have to make money.
Networking and connecting with other people
People, after reading your content, may reach out to collaborate or partner with you. The more people who see and read your content, the more business opportunities you may receive.
Make sure to include a section on your website where people can easily contact you, typically this is the contact form page.
If you are keen for partnerships and your niche provides a great opportunity for other businesses – let them know. Write an article about possible business opportunities or partnerships and let people know you are keen to cooperate.
77%
percentage of internet users who read blogs
Source: Blogging Statistics 2023
Improve your writing and communication skills
By regularly and consistently producing content for your blog you will inevitably improve your writing, editing and communication skills. In addition to those skills you will also improve the following skills:
- Keyword research and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Social media promotion
- Using metrics tracking software (Google Analytics, Google Search Console and others)
- Website maintenance
- Website design
All valuable skills. You can, in addition to your blog, provide some of those skills to other people (a money making idea!).
Archiving your thoughts and opinions
By maintaining a personal blog, you create an online history of your thoughts and opinions that you can revisit from time to time.
Additionally, you have the flexibility to go back to previous articles and update them with new information or fresh thoughts. It’s intriguing for your readers to observe how your opinions have evolved over time, and it’s a win-win situation as Google appreciates updated content.
How to monetize a Personal Blog
I’ve written about this topic before so I will recap some ways here and provide links to more in-depth articles.
- Affiliate Marketing – promoting and recommending products and services, and earning a commission for each sale made through your referral.
- Sponsored Content – receiving compensation for creating and publishing content on behalf of brands.
- Advertising – placing ads on your blog and earning money from clicks or impressions.
- Digital Products – selling digital products such as ebooks, courses, or webinars.
- Services – offering services related to your niche such as consulting, coaching, or speaking.
- Merchandise – selling physical products such as t-shirts, mugs, or prints related to your blog’s theme.
44%
percentage of buyers say they typically consume three to five pieces of content before engaging with a vendor
Source: Ahrefs Blogging Statistics 2023
Your blog can be a valuable personal asset. Just like other assets, you can always sell it if needed. The value of your website will depend on its traffic volume. The more organic search traffic your site receives, the higher its potential selling price.
Types of Personal Blogs
What are the common types of personal blogs?
- Lifestyle blog
- Travel blog
- Food and recipes blog
- Fashion blog
- Personal finance log
To stand out from the crowd you may want to consider less common types of personal blogs. Less competition means you can more likely find a profitable niche to make money from your blog. Consider these:
- minimalist living
- urban gardening and farming
- sustainable travel
- decluttering and organizing
- hiking and outdoor adventures
- self-improvement and personal development
- writing and storytelling
- a movie review blog
- learning new skills and crafts
- a fitness challenge blog
- a book club blog
- nature journal blog (document your walks, photos of wildlife, birds, plants etc)
- philosophy blog (explore personal beliefs, ideas, values)
- weather or cloud watching blog (document the weather: photos, videos, paintings, explain the science)
- music journal blog (share your personal music picks, concert reviews, personal views)
- personal productivity blog (most people need help with this topic!)
Just some ideas to consider. You want to blog about topics and ideas you care about – otherwise you won’t spend the time need to create and promote the content.
How to Start a Personal Blog
Convinced about the benefits of blogging? The next step is how to start a personal blog. I list the steps below but don’t forget to research your niche before you start writing!
Choose a blogging platform
By far the most popular blogging platform is WordPress. It’s the platform I use for this blog and all other blogs I have created.
You can’t go wrong with using WordPress for your blogging platform. However, if you have zero technical knowledge or skills and prefer something simpler, you may want to consider Weebly. Read my review of Weebly here: Benefits of a Weebly blog
Select a domain name and hosting
You will need a hosting account first, I’ve reviewed various hosting accounts before:
WP Engine Review: Grow your business with the #1 WordPress platform
Secrets for using SiteGround as your global hosting provider
Hosting accounts will have simple “wizards” (step-by-step guidance) that helps you quickly set up a WordPress website. Hosting accounts will provide you with everything you need to get started.
Customize the design and layout
WordPress has thousands of themes to choose from, both free and paid. When selecting a theme, two important considerations are:
- Speed: For SEO purposes, you want your website to load as quickly as possible. Most readers are not patient and will leave your website if it is slow.
- Security: It’s crucial to prioritize security as hackers continually try to break into websites and leave spam comments. This issue is becoming more prevalent with each passing year. To learn more about keeping your web server secure, read how to find and fix web server security threats.
Define your blog’s niche and target audience
Who is your target audience? What niche are you serving? It’s important to identify and define your target audience to effectively cater to their needs.
Remember, if you try to serve everyone, you end up serving no one. Instead of being a generalist, focus on a specific niche and cover it well. Read more here: The Ultimate Guide to Finding the Perfect SEO Niches for Your Business or Blog.
Create and publish high quality, original content
It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised by the amount of duplicate, copy-and-paste content that exists on the web. Now, with AI tools becoming available expect more boring, verbose and just plain false information will be produced.
As an aside, I think AI for website owners can boost your productivity and creativity. I don’t recommend AI for generating content directly but for research, outlining articles, helping with good title and descriptions.
If you are interested in using AI to help with your digital content creation I’ve written about this topic before:
Your personal experiences and opinions are what makes your content valuable.
Best Practices for Personal Blogging
Next, let’s talk about some best practices for personal blogging.
Consistency in posting and publishing content
Readers, as well as Google, appreciate regular updates. When you consistently publish new content, readers know they can expect fresh material and are more likely to return to your website.
Aim to maintain a consistent schedule for publishing new content. This helps establish a reliable expectation for your audience.
Engage with your audience through comments and social media
Your blog should have a comments section where readers can engage with your content, share their opinions, and provide feedback. Encouraging this interaction helps create a sense of community around your blog.
I recommend enabling content moderation for your blog. Unfortunately, the internet is plagued with spammers who may post money-making links on your website. This can negatively impact your readers’ experience, and search engines like Google may consider these dubious links as part of your content, potentially affecting your ratings.
Utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques
Write your content for people first. That’s Google’s recommendation, and it’s good advice. Prioritize delivering valuable content to your readers.
However, search engines play a significant role in driving free traffic to your website. So, it’s essential to optimize your content to be as search engine-friendly as possible.
For tips on how to do this check out this article: 29 SEO Tips and Tricks to help you rank better in Google
Another important part of content creation is keyword research. You need to target the correct keywords for your niche. Writing articles on keywords no-one is searching for is a waste of time.
Use a keyword research tool – such as SE Ranking or check out this review of affordable keyword research tools: 3 Affordable keyword discovery tools
For an idea of what a keyword research report looks like, try this free tool (you can do 5 free keyword searches per day). Type a keyword phrase you want to know about, e.g. “Keto Diet ideas”:
Monetize your blog through advertising, sponsorships, and affiliate marketing
There are many ways to make money from your blog. Check out some of the article below:
12 Surprising Money Making Blog Ideas You Haven’t Thought Of
How to become an Internet Entrepreneur
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this article has you excited about the possibilities of blogging. It’s easy to get into blogging once you have a website installed. You don’t need to know everything before beginning, just figure out what you are going to blog about, get a website installed and start blogging!
Quick summary:
- A personal blog is an online website where you share your thoughts, ideas and opinions
- A blog is great for self expression and provides a creative outlet for you
- Make money from your blog (ads, sponsorship, affiliate marketing, selling products/services)
- Network and connect with people using your blog
- Learn keyword research and SEO skills
- Be consistent in posting content to your blog
Oh, one final point before I leave you. Be patient. It can take a long time before your website picks up traction and starts getting readers. This is normal, don’t worry about it, if you are consistent and disciplined you will eventually find an audience and create a successful blog.
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