How to write a Good Blog?
Here are some steps you should follow to set up a good blog that appeals to your
readers:
1. Understand your passion
Before you start to write your first blog post, have a clear understanding of what your passions are and
where you can add unique insights or entertainment for your readers. Your readers will like to keep
coming back to your blog only if they find it to be meaningful and value adding. Otherwise, they will
visit once or twice, not to come back again.
2. Understand your audience
You need to write for your audience, hence you need to understand how your blog will provide value
to your audience. Also, your blog will need to adopt a persona for itself so that it is able to connect well
with the audience. For example, if you want to connect with the younger generation, you need to use
their language and images that appeal to them. However, if you want to address mature audiences,
you need to adapt your writing style to a much more formal one.
3. Set up your blog on Blogger.com
In the first module of the Digital Marketing program, we have shown a step by step way to configure
your blog on www.Blogger.com (same as www.Blogspot.com). There are other platforms like
Worpdress which are also popular, but we have selected Blogger as it is very well integrated with
Google Analytics and SEO and it is very easy to edit it and start blogging. You should pick up
Wordpress only if you are technically capable of setting it up and linking it with Google Analytics, but
for the purpose of this contest, we would strongly recommend using Blogger.
4. Customize your Blog's Theme
Once you have your blog domain (name) set up, customize the appearance of your blog to reflect the
theme of the content you plan on creating. You can always change the theme from left panel of your
blogger account. A few things to include right away are (go to settings > basic)
● Title of the blog - Just a phrase or 3 to 4 words should be enough
● Description - You can describe in length about what your blog is about
● Privacy - Pick “Yes” under add your blog to listings and let search engines find your blog
● Blog address - hope you have already selected your blog address as shown in the video. You
do not need to “Buy a domain” as free domains are provided by blogger.
● HTTPS - make it “Yes” so that your blog is secure
● Blog Authors - make sure that your name is showing up as a blog author
● Blog readers - ensure that “Public” is selected so that your blog is open to everyone to come
and read
5. Make sure that your blog is SEO friendly
You need to now go to Settings> Search preferences and do the following:
● Meta tags - add the description of your blog
You don’t need to change anything under “Errors and Redirection” and “Crawlers and Indexing”.
6. Prepare a content plan for your blog
Now that you blog is set up, you need to start thinking about what to write in the blog. The best way to
get started is by planning your first few blog posts. The first few blogs are important and they set the
tone for your rest of the blogs, so please spend some quality time thinking about the topic, content,
and visuals like images and videos for your posts. You should also think about what frequency you are
going to write and how you are going to generate the content. What you think right now will help you
streamline your processes and churn out blogs at a regular interval.
7. Write your first post with a captivating intro
First, you need to grab the reader's attention. So think about how you are going to keep the readers
engaged. Storytelling is a very good way to entertain and inform your readers. So start by telling them
what you’re trying to do and why you’re writing this blog. Like, what is the purpose and how they can
benefit from this. It is also useful to first create an outline of your content in bullets and then get
started, and churn out your first post.
8. Proofread your posts
Please make it a habit to proofread your post before you make it public. It always better to proofread
after a few hours so that you can look at your content afresh. It is also good if you can ask a friend to
do so. They can do a grammar check and can tell you if the post makes sense from an audience
perspective and how you can make it more interesting. You should also fix any formatting errors at this
point in time.
9. Featured image in the post
Please ensure that the images you’re using are copyright free or have been taken yourself. Please
never use anyone else’s image as you may land in trouble. There are many free resources for
copyright free and you should use them. You can search Google for copyright free images. Canva.com
is another resource for copyright free images.
10. Headline and tags on your post
When you write a post, first thing is to give it an appropriate title which describes the post and gets
readers excited about what is there in the post. Also, you can provide tags or labels to your posts (from
the right hand side of the blog creation page). These tags or labels are keywords or phrases that helps
the search engines properly identify and search for your post, amongst the other blogs. So please
spend sometime specifying these labels in the blogger account
11. Publish your post at a regular schedule
After you are happy with the post, please preview it and then publish it. Previewing the post helps you
weed out formatting and proofreading related issues, if they still remain. Also, ensure that you are
releasing a new post at certain intervals, like weekly. It is also good to let your readers know when
your next post is going to be live so that they can come back and check it out themlselves.
12. Promote your post
During the Digital Marketing training, we have laid out many ways in which you can promote your blog
and blog posts. Some of the more prominent ones are:
● Email: Sending an email to your friends and family talking about your blog and asking them to
check it out
● Social media : create a posts on social media platforms that you are present on like facebook,
twitter etc and ask your followers to check out the post
● Forums and groups: There are many forums and groups on the internet and you should become
members in groups which are relevant to your blog. For example, if you are writing about your
travel experiences, you can become members of travel forums and groups on Facebook and
other places, and talk about your blog in them.
● Content Marketing: You can share your blog with other writers and ask them to feature your
blog inside their blogs.
For the purpose of this contest, please do not use any paid means to promote your blog like using
Google Ads or Facebook ads.
Examples of Top Blogs in India
We are putting out some top blogs in India from various categories so that you get a good
understanding of what a good blog looks like. This should also help you benchmark yourself and judge
on where your blog writing skills are, as compared to these top bloggers. These should also inspire to
become a good blogger yourself. This is not an exhaustive list, but just a short selection to give you an
idea about top blogs in different categories.
Technology
● Digital Inspiration – https://www.labnol.org
● Amit Bhawanai – http://www.amitbhawani.com
● ShoutMeLoud – https://www.shoutmeloud.com
Travel, Fashion & Lifestyle
● Bruised Passports – https://www.bruisedpassports.com
● Settle Subtle – http://settlesubtle.com
● That Boho Girl – http://www.thatbohogirl.com
Food
● Archana’s Kitchen – https://www.archanaskitchen.com
● Eatopian Chronicles – http://www.eatopianchronicles.com
● Belly Over Mind – http://bellyovermind.com
Automobile
● Car Blog India – https://www.carblogindia.com
● Indian Autos Blog – https://indianautosblog.com
● Motor Octane – https://motoroctane.com
Bollywood Gossip
● Miss Malini – https://www.missmalini.com
● Pink Villa – https://www.pinkvilla.com
● Bollywood Journalist – https://bollywoodjournalist.com
Startups & Entrepreneurship
● YourStory – http://www.yourstory.com
● Inc42 – https://inc42.com
Some of the above blogs are huge commercial successes and their owners have turned their blogs
into decently sized startups.
