Update: See our more recently published posts on the topic of starting a blog at How to Start a Blog in 5 Easy Steps and how to make money blogging.
Welcome to my How to Blog – Blogging Tips for Beginners Guide.
On the page below you’ll find links to a series of how to blog tips that I’ve written with blogging for beginners (and ‘Pre’ Bloggers) in mind. It unpacks the basics of blogging and a lot of the decisions and strategies that you’ll want to consider when setting up and starting a blog.
How to Blog – My Ultimate Guide to Blogging for Beginners
Since developing this series I’ve produced a book specifically for beginner bloggers. You can learn more about it on our ProBlogger the Book page. The book is filled with up to date blogging tips for beginners – you can get it on Amazon here.
Lastly- if you enjoy these posts and want to keep in touch with ProBlogger – subscribe via our RSS feed.
Blogging Tips for Beginners
Introductory Posts
- What is a Blog?
- 23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers – Is a Blog Right for You?
- How to Choose a Niche Topic for Your Blog
- Choosing a Blog Platform
- Choosing a Domain Name for your Blog
- Blog Tools
Blog Design Tips
Tips for Writing Content for Blogs
- Useful and Unique Content
- Post Length
- Granular (One Topic) Posts
- Using Titles Effectively on Blogs
- Scannable Content
- Basic HTML Tags
- More on Writing Content for your Blog
Tips on Making Money from Blogs
- Introduction to Making Money from Blogs
- Should I blog for Money?
- Making Money From Your Blog – Direct Methods
- Making Money Because of your Blog – Indirect Methods
- How Much Money Can a Blog Earn?
- Introduction to Advertising Optimization – Traffic
- Introduction to Advertising Optimization – Ad Position
- Introduction to Advertising Optimization – Ad Design
- Introduction to Advertising – Ad Relevancy
- Introduction to Advertising – High Paying Ads
Blog Networks
- Introduction to Blog Networks
- Why Should you join a blog network?
- Why you shouldn’t join a blog network
Other Beginner Blogging Tips
- An Introduction to Using Images on Blogs
- How to Start a Blog Partnership
- Kick Your RSS – Jumping on the Syndication Bandwagon
- Introduction to Trackbacks
- Tag You’re It – Leveraging Tagging for your Blog
- 10 Techniques for Finding Blog Readers
- 19 More Strategies for Finding Readers
Want more Blogging Tips for Beginners?
If you want more blogging tips I can recommend two things.
1. Subscribe to ProBlogger – This blog is updated daily with news and tips relevant to bloggers wanting to improve their blogs. You can subscribe via our RSS feed or via email by adding your email address to the field below:
2. Check out the archives of ProBlogger – Over the last few years I’ve published over 3000 posts and blogging tips to ProBlogger. The links above just scratch the surface. One way to get into our archives is through our Archives Page which highlights the different categories of the blog and suggests some of the more popular posts from DEHE. Alternatively use the search feature at the top of the blog to hunt down the topics you want to know more about.
thanks for sharing and recommendation sourcing to learn for me as beginner
Thanks for the guide. Its like a reference tool for new bloggers. There are a lot many blogging platforms now than what was available 2 years ago. A lot of things changed but this is still a valuable post.
Thank you Darren for everything. Your posts here actually got me seriously into blogging, and that world is amazing I can tell you!
Keep on inspiring and motivating us beginners!
thank you for the comprehensive and thoughtful list… you are really a professional blogger
My blog is getting about 150 page views a day and just got a PR4 ranking after the 2nd week. Is this normal or just fluke luck?
I don’t write for money and im not even a good writer but I think my topics might be important to some in the e-commerce world.
I’m the e-commerce director for a start up company writing about changes in the marketplace and how we are growing.
Maybe I can make some money from this blog? at what point would I maybe consider monetizing the traffic that is coming in?
Thanks for all the links. They are very useful. I’m a beginner in the field of blogging. I hope I can be a good one. And thanks for the tips/techniques… this blog post is great. i actually bookmarked it here in my computer. hehe
This series has been so helpful for me in starting my blog. THANK YOU!
Great information for us newbies. Hats off to you and thanks for sharing.
It is a wise if the beginner start writing their most interesting thing for them.
I am going to launch 4 static geo-specific directories on the specific topic “farmingadvisor” (US, UK, Canada, Australia). The directories will list experts that can advise on farming issues in each country.
It is important that each site has its own domain with a ccTLD because each may be sold separately, and because advisor is spelt differently in the UK and US.
To promote each of these directories I am going to have a blog on each site. Each of these 4 blogs will have identical posts for 75% of the content which will be general farming news, and country-specific farming posts for 25% of the content. Over time this split should evolve to 50:50.
I am trying to wrap my head around the best way to execute this, and perhaps my current parameters need changing.
– Will each blog’s promotional power be severely inhibited by the fact that 75% of its content is repeated on three other domains?
– Is there an easy way to upload the content to all of the blogs at the same time even though they are on different domains?
– If the blog had 100% the same information for each site would that be better, there could be “1. DIRECTORY 2. SHARED BLOG 3. COUNTRY SPECIFIC BLOG” or is that crazy to have two blogs on one domain?
– So maybe it could be One Blog with links to four directories and each directory has a NEWS page rather than a blog?
I am really puzzled by the technical issues, and how to make it work for SEO, and would welcome comments and insights of any nature. I am going to invest some cash into this so I don’t want to make fundamental structural errors.
Thanks for the article, I have been searching everywhere for blogging tips and have none as organized and comprehensive as yours. I think an easy mistake a beginner blogger, such as myself, make is they hyper-focus on site not realizing the network they need to build.
wow, very nice and useful tips…thanks a bunch …
Darren, thanks for the reply, these tips have been invaluable.
Great tips – these are useful and this site rocks especially for beginners like myself…
Ei, darren, can you critique my new post? it’s about how to make your blog more human-friendly, just want to help new bloggers.
http://negosyo360.blogspot.com/2008/11/5-simple-ways-to-make-your-blog.html
it’s great to see so many blogging tips and such a great blogging discussion.
Starting a blog can be a little intimidating especially when confronted with the deluge of information.
Your resource is excellent.
The most important thing is just to start blogging- start writing about something you’re passionate about and don’t worry about the seo, monitizing, just yet.
I thought Tay over at http://www.superbloggingtips.com did a good job with the “75 Ways to Increase Traffic” post a few months ago. As a retired “systems engineer” with a few web sites, I moulded Tay’s list into a simple graphic that gives a big-picture view of blogging and web site promotion. Use it any way you see fit, if you are so inclined. The graphic is at http://www.silkybrick.com/cgi-bin/sb/pg_bt.pl
Thanks a lot. I’m a beginner and really should follow a lot of good instructions in this post. Does anybody know or saw any post about the follow,no-follow things that describe in detail. I really need to know that. Reply me at my blog or email.
This is a very good resource of beginners. Actually, it is good for everyone who cares about internet marketing.
Wow!
i just started blogging a couple days ago and the information you listed are blasting :)
I will need some time to read through all of this ;)
Thanks a lot :)
cya :)
Hi Darren,
Probably, you have heard it all before, but your site is like a mecca for newbies to the blogosphere. I have read almost each and every article on your site and am looking to go through them again before I start my own blog. I particularly liked the monetizing tips! (Yes, I am here for the dough :) )
One of the things that has confused me though, is selecting a niche. Is it really as important as it is made out to be? Cant we start a blog without a niche? As in, blog about anything and everything that comes to our mind?
Cheers,
Sanjay Nair
Hi Sanjay,
I am new to blogging too, and I decided to make my first blog about my experiences in making income online.
I believe you can start a blog without a niche and you can say anything and everything that comes to mind, but will it be successful?
You said you were here for the dough. A blog that just rambles about anything will not attract a targeted list of customers to your site. Without the proper bait at the end of your line you will not catch any big fish. Your bait should be focused content on a certain topic.
Problogger content is a perfect example of bait. They are catching all us bloggers!
Hi Paul,
Hmmmm. That’s pretty much what everyone says including Problogger. Right now, my blog focuses exclusively on content writing and SEO. But at times, I feel like writing about anything but those two topics. So my question is, is an occassional drfit from the topic acceptable without sacrificing your reader base in the process?
Cheers,
Sanjay
You are a great blogger, I am a Begginer and I am a fan of your blog. Happy New Year! And may the God Smile on us…
These articles will really help me building my new blog. Glad to find a place where I can get so many ideas to try and implement
Must be one of the most comprehensive set of beginner blogging articles that exists!
God Bless
Casper
This site is Awesome!!! I look forward to more information and becoming more engaged as my blog and experience grow.
nice stuff mr darren, it is always refreshing my mind to get forward in online business
gr8 links man…
after looking to this articles ,i think i need to edit my articles…
Gr8 work
So many things to read. So many great resources for me who has just started blogging. Which one is the best to start?
I have created my first ever blog for the garage where I work. I am trying my best to promote this blog and have read some great tips here.
My first aim is to get a good google ranking but it seems a little daunting but I will keep trying and reading the tips available here.
It’s always easy to say how to, to do it……… other issue
darren thx for all the great posts. i am wondering though about the new google dance. seems that G has placed less emphasis on exact longtail matches and more has been placed on content matches overall.. have you or anyone else run into this lately?
well said darren …You have taken care of and included almost all Topics which blogger needs
Excellent resources Darren, this will immensely help beginners.
This is like the mother load of Blogging information, impressive stuff, hours of researching can be saved its all here! Thanks!
These tips has been implemented by many bloggers in the philippines and it was successfully helped in their blogging activities.
Hello Darren,
When I decided I wanted to start my own blog, I went on a reading and research frenzy. I wanted to learn all I could as fast as I could about blogging. That’s how I found ProBlogger. This site has been such a great resource for me and while I am still rather new, I have learned so much in a short amount of time and a lot of the thanks goes to you and the ProBlogger Blog! Thanks!
-Keith Smith
this was very good it helps me a lot tanks 2 problogger
[…] level tips on how to launch a blog – for those wanting this I’d recommend checking out the Blogging Tips for Beginners Series that we previously ran with a whole lot of tips more focused upon the launch […]
Hello Darren
Thank You for your work and sharing of all the great information on your blog. As a new blogger I have found your blog a great source of inspiration and a wealth of info.
Thanks Again
Ken
Good Job Darren.Its very kind of all,those who share their good experience with the readers.I have gone through many articles in internet about effective blogging & I implement the steps,but cant find desired result.Hope this book will help.Anyways.
Thanx
Use effective titles is a great tip, thanks for sharing
Cheers for this post. This is really helpful for beginners that want to get into blogging.
it was pretty cool for newbie, i want to make the other version of your content in my language country, can i..?
I just started my blog and it was useful for me get such information about blogging. I’ll try to use it in my work.
This site has such wonderful content and it never ends. I can always find something new that gets me excited and pumped up to go and try every time i visit. Something I have always liked is mind maps. Have you at ProBlogger ever produced any mind maps on blogging and blog community?
Thank you for providing this FREE and valuable site.
For a blogger starting out, what blog site would you recommend. In other words which ones offer the most exposure to search engines and give the best bang for your word.
Am delighted to find your blog. We all need to find a site that makes our life easier and is informative at the same time.
Nice tips and tricks for beginners. I love how this article helps you even if you do not know a lot about blogging. This one really helped me on my sites.
ROCK ON!