Want to become a famous and professional blogger as fast as possible? Then continue reading, and learn from my mistakes. It will save you much time and money.
As I mentioned in my previous article, this article will teach you how to get started with blogging.
And how to make money out of it.
I will teach you how to avoid the mistakes that I've made since my first blog. Thus, after reading this article, you will immediately be able to publish your first article.
It will be a great one too!!
If you're serious about blogging, I recommend for you these top seller books:
a- Blog to Win Business: How to Enchant Readers and Woo Customers
What's a blog anyway?
A blog is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views about a specific topic.
What is the purpose of a blog?
There are many reasons for starting a personal blog:
1- Increase your visibility.
2- Connect to the relevant audience.
3- Boost your traffic and send quality leads to your website.
4- Showcase your authority and build a brand.
5- Share your own experience to help others.
So, how I got started as a blogger and how you can too
In January 2019, I decided to create my blog and begin to share my experience and knowledge. My purpose was to help at least one person to guide him/her through his/her career. When I graduated from high school, I had no idea which major I should've opt-in. I've spent a year trying to find what I love to do for my next 30 to 40 years.
Long story short, I'm an electrical and telecom engineer, game developer, website developer, and a blogger. Find out more here
Most people can't do anything from beginning to the end.
Most people start something; They get excited about it. Then they never do anything about it again.
Don't be one of those people.
If you want to become a blogger, you should commit and persist.
You only need time. As long as you're delivering high content articles, once or twice a week every week, you will succeed. Track your progress to figure out what your audience likes.
Moreover, you might say that I want to stop since no one is reading my articles. I've been there and got through that situation.
How? Simply keep writing.
Besides, I've read articles on how to deliver great content. I've taken into consideration those tips; hence, my blog got much more views and positive comments. Such comments always keep me motivated to deliver more.
If you can't commit and begin to make excuses, stop reading and wasting your time. Close the tab and search for another hobby that you're passionate about. Blogging isn't yours.
If you're still here, then you're 100% committed and ready to begin your journey as a blogger. Congratulations!! Send me your blog progress and articles. I'm interested in reading your articles and helping you.
There are a lot of articles that can guide you on how to become a blogger, in which they mention many sites that offer free blog hosting. I believe that such guides will confuse and overwhelm you due to the high number of websites that they suggest. Therefore, you will create an account on every site, and begin to test the audience's engagement in every website.
This is a shortcut. Keep reading...
I will share my secrets and my way through blogging.
1- Create An Account On Dev.to
I've searched for free websites where I can host my blog. Through experience, I've found out that Dev.to is the best. I've tried Medium but didn't get as many views, likes and comments as on Dev. For example, This article had 28000+ views on Dev, whereas, on Medium, just a couple of views. Note that I'm still getting likes and comments on that article.
2- Use Grammarly
Grammarly is an app that can correct your grammar in a smooth and easy way. It will help you write with absolutely no grammatical errors. Thus, one step ahead to deliver a professional content.
I use Grammarly premium, and I highly recommend it.
Grammarly makes sure everything you type is effective and mistake-free.
Grammarly scans your text for common grammatical mistakes (like misused commas) and complex ones (like misplaced modifiers). Write with confidence, even on your phone.
Grammarly isn’t just a safety net. You’ll get detailed explanations for all your mistakes to help you avoid making them again in the future.
It's an excellent self-investment for only 12$/month. You have to spend money to make money. Don't think about how much you will pay, instead, think about how much you're saving. With such a mindset, you will eventually succeed. In fact, with Grammarly premium, you're learning English and saving time and money hiring a professional writer. The latter, according to his/her experience, might cost you tens of dollars per word.
3- Interlink
This is really important! I regret not interlinking when I had some articles that reached 1000, 5000, 10000 or 30000 views.
Linking means to create hyperlinks in your page or post. Interlinking is the process where your article has links to other articles which is related to the current subject so that the reader can click and redirects him/her to another site.
At first, you can link to another blogger's article. Once you have a bunch of related posts, make sure to include at least one interlink. It's like building a chain.
This is a vital way to get more traffic and more views.
4- Use Google To Get Inspired
Since I'm committed to posting at least 1 article per week, I manage my time to have at least 2 to 4 hours/week to write.
But, what if I can't think of a specific topic????
To solve this issue, I use Google and Youtube to get some content. These giants have a great suggestion tool. I used to write on Google "How to become" or "How to" and a big list of suggestions appears. I pick one and make it more specific. For example, check this article's title.
Once you've picked a topic to write about, you're halfway through.
I prefer to write the title first, then begin to write the article. It might not be a perfect way.
5- Subscribe To Other blogger's list
There's a lot of talented bloggers out there. They've just made it through.
I'm interested in programming; that's why I follow bloggers that offer coding tips and hacks.
Besides, you can subscribe to other lists. These are my favorite bloggers:
a- Laurence Bradford
c- Ali Spittel
6- Track The Best Time To Post
You might wonder why some exciting articles that you publish don't get a high number of views. Why? Timing.
I've tracked the best times to publish articles. It's between 10:30 PM and 5:00 AM (Lebanon time, +3GMT) from Sunday to Wednesday.
Sometimes, I used to finish an article, and instead of waiting for that period, I publish it early. Then, I get disappointed by the low number of views 😂
Keep calm and patient.
7- Create Your Website
Once you've written a bunch of articles, if you have some cash, create your blog. How?
I personally host my portfolio and website using TMDHosting
I've read many articles in which people complained about bad hosting services. These websites claim that they have a 24/7 support, however, once you pay them, they provide support after a couple of hours or a day. It's NOT the case with TMDHosting
TMDHosting's support is very professional, fast responding, and friendly.
I had absolutely no idea about how Wordpress works. I used to open a ticket to ask the help of the support. In my message, I mentioned that I had no experience, and I need help in specific stuff. With such support, it was straightforward to create and manage my website from A-Z. What's the amazing about TMDHosting is that you can track your ticket's status. Just relax and let them take care of your problems.
Why should you create your own website? Short answer: Build an email list
Long answer: An email list is simply a list of emails that businesses have gathered from visitors/customers that would like to receive information, updates, discounts, and other details about your business in a digital format that is sent to their email inbox.
Email lists are essential since email marketing is the best way to connect with customers vs. social media. In fact, you are 6x more likely to get higher click-through rates through emails instead of tweets. Also, email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter.
To take advantage of connecting with customers through your compiled email lists, you need to work on email list building.
How to build an email list?
As mentioned earlier, you want to provide visitors with more opportunities to subscribe to your email. A few ways you can do this include:
a- CTA buttons to subscribe on every landing page on your website
b- Images that pop-up or slide-in on all your landing pages
c- Surveys that are timed to a pop-up while visitors are browsing
d- Post about your email newsletter on social media accounts
e- Describe what visitors will get out of subscribing to your email (This is my favorite) you can check mine to get some ideas.
I regret I didn't buy this book: "WordPress for Beginners 2019: A Visual Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering WordPress" when I kickstarted my website. I've lost a great amount of money, buying useless templates and packages.
Avoid my mistake and start reading this book to save your money and time.
8- Sell Products
Now that you have your email list, you can get some cash. I recommend two ways, the first is to sell your products, the second is to become an affiliate. It depends on your niche, in my case, I've joined Udemy, Amazon and Grammarly's affiliate programs.
I believe that the first path doesn't need much explanation. You have a product, let's say an online course or ebook, and you send coupons for it to your email list. If you have loyal subscribers, then most of them will buy it. Here, your copywriting skills play the most significant role to close them.
When it comes to affiliate products, it's the process of earning a commission by promoting other people's (or company's) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others, and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.
Conclusion
This is my story in how I got started as a blogger. It's working for me like a charm. I hope it helps you to learn from my mistakes. Therefore, when you start your journey, you won't start from zero.
To summarize how to get started as a professional blogger and make money out of it:
1- Create an account on Dev.to
2- Use Grammarly
3- Interlink
4- Use Google To Get Inspired
5- Subscribe To Other blogger's list
6- Track The Best Time To Post
7- Create Your Website
8- Sell Products
Parting Thoughts...
If you are just getting started or want to talk about being a blogger or a programmer, feel to send me an email. I would love to connect with more bloggers and programmers!
Can't wait to see everyone else's posts!
Top comments (4)
Great post Hussein. Grammarly is really good, I'm considering getting the pro version after using the free one for months.
Thanks for showing how to build an email list, it is something I'm struggling to do. I wanted to do something more than "Give me your email so I can spam you whenever I write a post", so giving them a weekly digest, plus exclusive articles, discounts etc seems a good trade-off for them.
Thanks David for your kind words.
If you want to upgrade to grammarly premium, please use the link in my article, I get a promotion for it ;)
Don't make my mistake by focusing on many fields.
Just focus on one thing. Once it makes you 1$, then keep it up and see how you can automate it to get more results in less time.
When you begin on your section about starting your website, did yoy continue to publish your blog posts on DEV or did you migrate to hosting your own blog site on WordPress? Or was the WP site your lead funnel that got traffic from your blog? Im confused..
Sorry for the late reply, I haven't checked my blog for a while now. I was concentrating on my work and game.
To answer your question, I started on Dev (since it's free). However, my articles are published on Dev and husseincheayto.com.