There are so many blogs created everyday. With the boom of social media and people everywhere wanting to share their knowledge and experience, more and more people have started a blog. It might be about something personal, or maybe a “how to” blog or even a fashion or cooking inspired blog. The choices are endless.
It is easy to start a blog, but the challenge is really sustaining it. Like anything else you do, you really need to arm yourself with some basic skills in order to make the tasks more efficient. Any task becomes easy and enjoyable once we have learned the necessary information and given it the appropriate amount of time. Bloggers particularly need to make sure that they have at least some of the basic skills in order to enjoy the blogging experience. There are five basic skills that you need to master in my opinion.
1. Computer Skills – This is something that may seem basic, but it is still very important. You must be able use a computer in such a way that you maximize your time writing instead of spending your time troubleshooting. Learn short cuts and how to handle internet bugs and connectivity issues.
2. Image Editing – You do not need to be a designer, but we still need to learn basic Photoshop techniques for resizing images. I’m just referring to image manipulation basics. It is a must that we have captivating images that are sized correctly. Words are important, but the images bring so much life into your articles. I learned Photoshop recently. There are so many tutorials available out there. You just need to focus and be patient with yourself while you learn.
3. Basic HTML – (HyperText Markup Language) If you use WordPress, Blogger or any other platform for that matter, you will want to learn these basics. You do not want to be calling up your developer friend so that you can embed a video or an image, or to make an article’s layout a certain way. You really need to know basic coding in order to make your life much easier. I am truly thankful to @Minervity who are always are available for consultations whenever I mess up my HTML code.
4. Knowledge of Your Subject Matter – Blogging is not just a bunch of words. Having a direction and good content are also important for a blogger to be successful. You must be able to dish out different articles in a particular genre depending on your niche. Make sure that you research, read and learn about the topic you have decided on for your particular blog.
5. Basic SEO – (Search Engine Optimization) You labored with writing your article, now you also need to make sure that it is searchable. One way to do this is to make sure that you know your SEO basics. SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a webpage in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. You should also know how to use the proper tagging methods. Again, this can be learned, and there is so much information on the subject that you can learn online. There are no more excuses not to learn these things.
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