How to Write a Blog for Portfolio?

To start the blog, we need to be clear on the following steps:

1. Selection of Blogging platform

2. Blog Niche

3. Hosting to make a blog online

4. Designing the blog

5. Plan the content

6. Writing the first blog

7. SEO to drive free traffic

Before we move to our article’s content, let’s first see what the blog is & what its uses are.

“A blog is an online register or a simple website with informational content that needs to be updated regularly.”

Bloggers make blogs:

• For Personal use.

• For Business needs to help their company

• For content to be ranked on search engines.

• To cultivate an online community and engage with an audience.

• To attract visitors to your site and turn those visitors into leads.

• For sharing information related to the topic in which the blogger is an expert.

1. Selection of Blogging platform:

To make a blog, the first step is to select the best free blogging platform the web has to offer where we can create our blog. There is a thing that not all blog platforms are suitable for everyone. We know that different bloggers have different needs, and different blog platforms are suitable for different things. ultimately, “best” will depend on you and your situation. So the blogging platforms, we’ll discuss common traits (besides being free). Let’s take a look at them before we dive in:

o No Maintenance Tension: There will be no need to take tension about the blog's maintenance. No need to worry about updates, CSS or HTML tweaks, data backups, or gremlins hacking your server — they’re all handled by someone else.

o Easy to use: Each blogging platform is user-friendly to newbies and beginners.

o Customization is limited: There will be no unlimited options; you will get limited options to easily manage.

Ready to find out which platform is best for you so you can start blogging? Let’s go.

▪ Medium - Best Platform for Simplicity:

✓ To start blogging, search Medium and click the get started button. Here you have multiple options to make the account. It is up to you whether you signup through Google or Facebook.

✓ After creating an account and logging in to the account, you have to click your avatar (the floating head) in the top-right corner of the page and then select “New story.”

✓ A new clean page will be opened, and you just have to start typing; whatever you write will automatically be saved in the system. Once you are ready with the post, click on ready to publish, and it will be live for all users at medium.

▪ WordPress.com - Best Sandbox Platform:

✓ To start blogging, make an account by visiting WordPress.

✓ Put the necessary details and click continue; in the following interface, you have to put details about your blog.

✓ Next, enter an address for your site: Once you put the site address, you’ll get a list of options. Be sure to select the “Free” one.

✓ Finally, last, you pick a plan. Again, choose the “Free” option.

✓ WordPress.com’s “free for life” plan has numerous features, including:

❖ A free WordPress.com subdomain

❖ “Jetpack” essential features

❖ Community support

❖ Dozens of free themes/templates

▪ LinkedIn - Best Platform for Professionals:

LinkedIn is mainly used for Professional Business. This allows any of its 560 million users to write posts that could be read by any of the 260 million active members in a given month. Go to LinkedIn, and you’ll see this window encouraging you to join. It is an even easier platform than medium and WordPress. LinkedIn is a free-to-use publishing platform consisting of Professional and Business Connects. Once you create the account, you will get the option right into your LinkedIn profile “Write an article” button; by clicking it, you will be redirected to the blog writing page, and you can quickly start writing.

▪ Instagram - Best Platform for Visuals & Microblogging:

Instagram is excellent for microblogging. What is microblogging? For example, have you clicked a picture that looks awesome and are willing to upload it on Instagram for a caption? You will write a short blog post (microblogging). Start with signup, go to Instagram, make an account and start microblogging.

Who Should Use Instagram? Anyone who focuses on highly visual topics like Modelling, Photography, Yoga Instruction, Chef, Makeup artists, and Clothing stores.

2. Blog Niche:

The Blog Niche is a specialized topic area you’ll focus on when writing content. There are many niches in which you can easily make a blog. It is up to you in which niche you are strong and can maintain better and grow more than your expectations.

I am sharing some of the excellent and famous blog niches:

1. Investment

2. Recipes

3. Writing

4. Nature

5. Photography

6. Medication

7. Running

8. Travelling

9. Education

10. Technology

11. Beauty

12. Fashion

13. Yoga Classes

14. Entertainment

15. Life Hacks

16. Informational

17. Tip & Tricks

18. Cryptocurrency

19. NFTs

20. Cloth Store

21. Personal Investment

22. Kitchen Equipment

23. Cooking Tutorials

24. Freelancing Courses

25. Social Media Marketing

26. Online & Offline Gaming

27. SEO (Search Engine Optimization

28. Keywords Research

3. Selection Of Hosting for the Blog:

It is necessary to choose the best hosting if you want to make your blog successful. Let’s jump right into the best blog hosts and the pros and cons of each one.

✓ Bluehost ($2.75/month):

Why Bluehost? Because it has:

• Authentic 99.99% Uptime

• Super Fast Hosting

• Cost-Effective

• Easy to Use

• Pre-installed WordPress

• Fast and Competent Support

• 30-Day Money Back Guarantee

✓ Host Gator Cloud ($2.64/month):

Host Gator Cloud has less price than Bluehost, and though it has fewer features, it is still included in one of the best hosting platforms. The features included are:

• 99.97% Uptime

• 479 Millisecond Average Load Time

• Free Site Migration

• Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage

✓ SiteGround ($3.95/month):

It is a little expensive, but it has some great features too, and that are:

• Good Uptime – 99.98%

• Great Support

• Easy To Use

• Great for WordPress Hosting

• Officially Recommended by WordPress.org

• Stable Speeds Averaging at 615ms

✓ Hostinger ($1.59/month):

The cheapest and the best Hosting platform on our list. It performs well and has the following features:

• Cheap Hosting

• Good Uptime – 99.95%

• Good Security Features

• 1-Click WordPress Install

• Free Caching

• Free Domain

✓ DreamHost ($2.95/month):

DreamHost is an ancient Hosting platform, it has been available on the Internet since 1996, but it still has good usage by Bloggers. The available features are:

• Reliable – 99.95% Uptime

• Load Time – 719ms

• 97 Days Money Back Guarantee

• Unlimited Bandwidth

• Good Support

✓ GoDaddy ($10.99/month):

GoDaddy is the largest domain registrar in the world and has been providing hosting services for a long time. It is available with the following features:

• Good Uptime – 99.97%

• Good Speeds – 500ms Average Speed

• Free Domain

• 1-Click Migration

• Free Daily Backups

• 24/7 Phone Support

Above all are the Hosting Services Providers; you can select anyone according to your budget and requirements. Before you choose any hosting platform, do not forget to learn about Uptime, Domain, Speed, Bandwidth, and Storage because these are all essential for a Blog/Website.

4. Designing The Blog:

Do you know Blog Designing has 100% effects on your blog? Your success depends upon blog Designing because your blog design shows who you are as a blogger, brand, and business — and influences your reader’s overall experience. Plus, a well-designed blog is easier to read, more engaging, and has better SEO results.

Here are some designs for a Blog:

• 500px: This blog design is mainly for Photographers. In this design, you can showcase your Portfolio with photos.

• Airbnb: The blog is dedicated to Travel and Hospitality.

• Brit + Co: The design’s category is Life Style.

• Copy Blogger: It is used for Marketing Blogs.

• Create + Cultivate: Dedicated to Lifestyle and Business Blogs.

• Julian Shapiro: It is a Writer’s Blog.

• Maria Killam: The design is for Interior Designing.

• Math3ma: It is dedicated to Education.

• MR. Money Moustache: It is for Personal Finance.

•Nerd Fitness: The design contains Fitness.

5. Plan the Content:

Two sections of the blog content should focus on the following:

a) pre-launch and b) post-launch content.

a) Pre-launch content:

• About Page: It will describe who you are and your Company, Business, and Organization.

• Contact: The blog should have a Contact Page so that visitors can frequently ask and clear their confusion.

• Services/Products: To Promote your business/skills, you must show your services; visitors should see what services/products you are selling.

• Description for each blog: In this Segment, there will be a detailed description of the product/services.

• Content for the SEO title and description tags of each page: A Meta tag is a code snippet that includes text outlining information about a particular page for the search engines. It will not be seen on the actual page but only inside the code

b) Post-launch content:

• Regular blogs/articles: It is required to maintain your Blog regularity by posting articles 1-3 in a day. These are the main things before and after planning the content and making A successful Blog. Every step should be taken with full attention

Let’s move to the next step for making a blog: Writing the first blog.

6. Writing the First Blog:

To write the first blog, two things should be focused on, and that is: a) are you starting a personal blog and b) starting a Business/Company/Organization blog?

When starting a personal blog, you must write about yourself, your experiences and skills, etc., because presenting yourself in the first blog post is a great way to let readers know more about who you are.

If you're going to write an introductory first blog post, answer the questions people might have about your blog.

But what if your blog is not personal?

If the blog is not personal, you can write in any niche according to your compatibility. Before writing, make sure to choose a topic you are comfortable with and can quickly write. Try to make your first blog “EVERGREEN” because it will generate traffic.

Some of the best types of blog posts:

• Lists

• Tutorials

• How-to

• Checklists

• Case studies

• Comparisons

• Problems and solutions

• Inspirational stories

• FAQs

• Beginners' guides

• It is also essential to research before writing a blog because research will give you information about the audience’s interests.

• Do not forget to Maintain Keywords Research too. SEO is the most crucial part of blogging.

• The Next step is the Headline of the Post.

Following are a few tips to come up with a killer first blog post title:

✓ Add keywords in your Headline (Title)

✓ Make sure to keep the title under 70 words, do not make them longer. ✓ Use powerful words.

✓ Use Co schedule Headline Analyzer to see the score of your title.

✓ Write at least 5-10 headlines to make changes and see which is better.

✓ Use you/your. It will look more sophisticated.

To start your first post, don’t directly rush to content after the headline. First, build the structure, and take some time to outline your body content.

Two main reasons to use a structure:

• It'll make writing easier.

• It makes the blog post readable – Try to make sections into chapters, subchapters, and bullet points.

You can build the structure through Keyword addition and Google Research.

So how do you start writing a blog post properly? Here are the examples.

• Select the words that directly hits the audience’s brain.

• The best way to start a blog post is by Asking a question. Like are you also desperate to learn what your future will be?

• Start with controversy

• Storytelling – Stories in the blogs are so powerful and attentive.

Okay, so Now it's time to add value to your first blog post. When you are about to end the blog, make sure it should have Keywords again.

Rules to follow when you write a blog entry:

• It should be in Sections.

• Use headings.

• Use bullet points because these look nice, and the content will not be looked at as lengthy.

• Use the Grammarly app/keyboard to ensure all writing errors are apparent.

7. SEO to drive free traffic:

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is essential to make your blog visible and popular on Google. Whenever we search a “Food items,” google shows us all the food items. This means that this topic has excellent SEO.

It is not an easy task to get free traffic for a blog unless we do the following things:

✓ Add Keywords in the Title and Permalinks

✓ Remove and Rename the image with Descriptive Words

✓ Use Tags and categories Wisely

✓ Fill in Meta-Tags

✓ Focus on Search Intent:

An ideal Audience needs a blog with these 4 options:

❖ Informational

❖ Navigational

❖ Transaction

❖ Commercial Investigation