15 Things You Will Want To Do With Your…
Nowadays, website building is a common thing for anyone. Users of all skill levels can manage their long-awaited blogs rapidly. This process became not just affordable but quick and stress-free. There is no need to learn how to code to start your blog. Would you like to get your perfect blog right now?
Well, it’s actually possible. The website-building process is fast and pleasant now. Thanks to the digital progress, you have numerous ready-made products to work with. You can build a modern website of any complexity without touching a single line of code. To say more, you won’t even need to have extra knowledge or special experience.
So, how to start a professional blog and do it without a hitch? I’ll show you how everything works. In this post, I’ve selected all my personal tips for non-techies on how to build a blog. But before we get started, check out the latest blog statistics below.
Reasons to Run a Professional Blog in 2020?
These days people all over the globe keep asking one simple question. How to start a blog without coding? Fortunately, modern resources allow you quick and painless website building. Following the newest blog statistics, in 2019, we have the next numerals.
- The number of bloggers is going to reach the mark of 32+ million by next year.
- More than 40% of Internet users regularly skim blog posts.
- What is more, over 50% of today’s marketers say blogs became their top content marketing priority.
- 95% of modern users share blog posts with friends and followers. They say they share blog posts because this info can help other users.
- Blogs were rated as the 5th most trusted source to get info.
As you can see, blogs are pretty popular. They help business people to develop their companies. Here are the main reasons to start your blog.
- With its help, you become closer to the audience. Use blog to share your story with others.
- A smartly created blog makes your relations with the audience more trustworthy.
- In case you own an online shop, blog is just what the doctor ordered. It can increase sales and promote new products.
- No matter what your blog is about, it always helps to keep the audience engaged.
- Also, when optimized properly, blogs can improve SEO.
5+2 Reasons for Marketers to Run Blogs
Without a doubt, any marketer use blogs to promote a company or a startup. They do their best to craft visually pleasing and visitor-friendly blogs. There is a special statistic based on different surveys which allows to understand the audience preferences. For example, those blog posts that have pics get 94% more views, which is an impressive result. Also, more than 35% of blog visitors claim they prefer list-based blog headlines. These are only a few facts a marketer should know to set up a successful blog.
Are you a marketer or just looking for ways to promote a company? Don’t miss the next numerals in this case. Here are 7 impressive reasons why marketers run blogs today in accordance with the blogging statistics.
- Almost 96% of today’s bloggers use SM to promote their blogs.
- 63% of prospects prefer blogs that have more than one author, so you may want to try guest-posting.
- Companies that run blogs get 97% more links to their business websites.
- 57% of marketers claim they attracted customers through blogging.
- Running blog increase website traffic by up to 6x.
- 456.1 million is the number of Tumblr blogs in 2019.
- Companies who share 16+ blog posts monthly receive 3.5x more traffic than those who post 4 times per month or less.
How to Run a Blog Without Coding? Quick Beginner Guide
Looks like you can benefit from running a blog even if you are a non-techie. On average, there is nothing complicated. However, to achieve success, you should know everything and anything about modern blog running strategies. The blog you are about to launch should meet several requirements. It also requires a clean and responsive design, reader-friendly navigation, and unique content. Still, you should build a blog before all else, and here is how you can do it.
First things first, you will need a domain name. In fact, it will be the first thing the Internet audience see or hear about your business. That is why the domain name you use should be related to what you do. Although this is a necessary step, many beginners don’t pay a lot of attention to choosing their domain name.
Choosing a Domain Name for Your Blog
To choose the right domain name (DN), keep in mind that:
- it will influence the way prospects refer to your blog or business in general,
- you should look for short DNs because they are easier to type or remember,
- the DN you use should be unique and catchy,
- make sure your DN is as memorable as possible,
- for businesses it should also be brandable,
- DN should contain keyword or keywords related to your topic,
- the closer your domain name is to your business niche, the better it will be for SEO.
By the way, statistics show that websites with long domain names lose much traffic. So, you definitely need a short one.
In summary, your DN should be niche-specific, memorable, short, easy-to-type, and easy-to-remember. And, what is even more important, it should be 100% unique! I know It may be hard to find your perfect DN and sometimes it looks like all the worthy names are already taken… Still, try to follow these rules as much as you can, and your domain name will start working for you.
Choosing CMS
Once you’ve chosen and purchased the domain name for your blog, you will need to select a platform. Which one should you choose? The variety is super-rich so that anyone can find something to their taste. I can’t tell you which platform is the best one because the answer should depend on your needs.
Following the statistics from WebsiteSetUp, these are the website builders and content management systems that were popular in 2018:
- WordPress (free) 52%
- Wix (paid) 7%
- Joomla (free) 4%
- Progress Sitefinity (free) 4%
- Squarespace (paid) 4%
- Weebly (paid) 2%
Each of them has blogs, video and customer feedback you should check. When you are done, it is time to move to the next step – building your blog.
Running Your Blog
The good thing is that there are tons of ready-to-use products to start a blog. You can search for various themes and templates. They are the pre-designed sets of pages that require no coding skills. You can just fill these pages with your content, and voila. Some of such handy products come with must-haves only. Others include different trendy features and stylish web design components.
Basically, you have 3 options.
- You can choose a simple blog template which contains blog pages only. This option would be perfect for beginners.
- You can choose a multifunctional theme which allows you to create a professional website. Such themes have pages for all occasions, including eCommerce.
- As an alternative, you can look for free templates.
You can even find some complete packages for beginners, like ONE, Elegant Themes, ThemeFuse, Crocoblock, etc. You can see the examples of their products below. These are the memberships that contain everything you may need, including 1-year-long hosting. No matter which hosting provider you choose, your template should have the following features:
- responsive and versatile web design that suits any screen size,
- Search Engines Optimization,
- readable, clean, and eye-friendly typefaces and icons,
- comfortable, customer-friendly navigation,
- rocket-fast loading speed.
These were just to name a few. When you added all these essentials to the blog design, start working on the creative part of your project. WordPress business themes already come with such voguish web design features, such as:
- Testimonials,
- Countdown timer,
- Progress bars,
- Parallax effect, etc.
And here are a couple of beautiful examples of how your blog can look with a Divi theme from ElegantThemes.
Would you like your blog to be a stylish one? Just make sure the website theme you choose already contains cool visual effects. There should be a user-friendly builder and a set of content elements for it.
Choosing a Website Builder
Another great thing about modern website building is drag & drop technology. Most of the brand-new site editors come with full-fledged packs of features. They contain hundreds of content widgets and allow to build or edit new layouts with drag & drop. The good news is that not all the builders allow spending money. You can save some coins and search for free products with drag & drop. How does it work? The name of the technology speaks for itself. Basically, here is all you should do to add a feature to a page:
- choose the feature you want to add,
- drag it,
- drop it to the editor window.
And… That’s it!
For today, the most popular drag & drop builder for WordPress is Elementor. The editor is popular thanks to an intuitive, creator-friendly interface. The pack contains a set of content widgets and there’s a live preview. In a word, Elementor provides users with a stress-free WYSIWYG website-building experience.
Here are 5 proven website builders and content editing resources.
- Wix is a cloud-based web development platform which specializes in HTML5 sites building. It also crafts mobile-ready online projects.
- Novi is the top-rated visual builder for HTML websites. It works on drag & drop and gives you lifetime access to all plugins, themes, and their future updates.
- Weebly is a popular web hosting service that was made for eCommerce. In 2019, the resource has more than 45 million customers.
- Jimbo is a quick and simple website builder. With it, you can customize designs, create domains, etc.
- Readymag is a handy online design tool widely used for blogs and eBooks.
To make a long story short, today, drag & drop technology is the fastest way to create a blog. It is creator-friendly, intuitive and has a live preview. You can avoid making the most common mistakes when designing your blog in a live mode.
Keep Your Blog Up-to-Date
You may think that the biggest part of your work is done now. Still, it is not enough to design, launch, and feature a blog. Do you want your online project to be popular? Therefore, you should keep it updated. There are many ways you can increase blog activity and keep the readers engaged.
- Start with CTAs. These small design elements have been popular for years because they do work. You can literally highlight anything or make visitors perform the needed action with a good CTA.
- Popups are another feature your website needs. With their help, you can highlight some events and call readers to action.
- Email subscription is the next feature you can’t avoid. It is a proven and simple way to remind readers about your blog. You can design unique emails with newsletter templates or look for free samples online.
- Don’t forget to integrate your blog with popular SM platforms. Add Facebook or Instagram feed to its design and allow people to enter your blog via SM accounts.
- Plan your future posts so that you will always have some content to share.
Final Thoughts
To sum everything up, it is easy to build a blog nowadays. You have everything pre-designed and ready-made now so there should be no problems with the technical side of your project. Take a final look at my personal 15 tips on how to run a blog.
- Prefer shorter domain names.
- Use ready-made templates.
- Choose a drag & drop content builder.
- Get a responsive design.
- Optimize the blog with search engines.
- Create prospects-oriented content.
- Work on your headings and media content.
- Use only eye-friendly fonts.
- Integrate with SM.
- Craft reader-friendly blog navigation.
- Use tags and categories to sort your blog posts.
- Plan your posts.
- Create a newsletter subscription and prioritize your inbox.
- Make sure you have a nice loading speed.
- Check blog analytics to improve it.
7 COMMENTS
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WordPress has great themes and offers good customer support.
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