Let’s just bring this image, together, in our minds. You and a tiny, fancy laptop, writing about amazing topics while sitting at a cafe; on a narrow street in Paris, or under a chilling umbrella near the ocean, or while riding across the savanna, or in the cozy warmth next to your fireplace.
That’s quite a romantic picture, of a life full of adventure, exploration, yet comfort, good money, and more than anything else, freedom. This is the appeal of blogging as a lifestyle: utmost wealthy freedom. Yet, this is just picture-perfect. How is the reality of blogging, and particularly, amateur blogging?
What does it take to do it? Is passion indeed a central piece in this activity? It is worth it, and what can you do about it, if this idea taunts you? Let’s enter together into the world of amateur blogging, and discover each little detail that can transform it from an interesting idea into a satisfactory full-time activity.
What is Amateur Blogging
If you want a short answer we could define amateur blogging as an activity of writing and posting texts online without expecting it to bring you a considerable income. Or maybe you shouldn’t expect any type of reward? Does this make posting from time to time personal texts on a personal webpage, a hobby?
It needs to start as a hobby. You should have some pleasure from doing this activity in the first place. Otherwise, why writing constantly? So it all comes from your pleasure of expressing an opinion, or a discovery about a certain topic, or just about everything that comes your way, and posting it online.
This brings about another aspect of amateur blogging. You need to have a certain openness towards people that you know, as well as any stranger, reading what you write. You should take into account even receiving comments with different points of view than yours, or critiques.
You need to be ready for written confrontations if you are exposing your ideas in the wide open. Otherwise, if you just write for yourself you wouldn’t put the texts online, would you?
So as you can see, the enjoyment side of blogging as well as undertaking some minimal risks of rough feedback need to be present in your mind and feelings, before actually starting creating a blogging account and posting the texts.
Is the Income an Essential Component of Amateur Blogging?
Is amateur blogging related to any income? Theoretically, if it’s about an amateur activity, you just do it because you choose to. Without expecting any revenue. This should be the start of a blogging activity. Don’t start having money in your mind.
It simply doesn’t work this way. Plus if you expect money for what you write, you will be very fast disappointed. If you are a professional writer, you will not do amateur blogging. You should take paid blogging projects.
Take pleasure from the activity itself, and then from the network of readers that you might create if you post constantly and gather regular followers. Then, money might appear. Amateur blogging doesn’t contradict the idea of being paid. Just don’t let it become your main target.
Money might come as a bonus to all that you are offering to your readers. With time it might become an extra source of income for your main activity. Or even, in the luckiest situations, amateur blogging might transform into your full-time activity and becoming your main income source.
This happened before, so don’t exclude it from your mind. However, the majority of amateur bloggers are not making a living exclusively from writing online.
How Does Money Might Come From Amateur Blogging?
Some make big money from their blogs to the level of several thousand $ monthly. Or even more. But these are not so many. Yet, if money comes to you due to your amateur blog, then it is usually through affiliate marketing, ads on your webpage, classic advertising contracts, and even though donations granted by your readers.
Usually, it will take you months, even years to set up the right network of income sources. To try many variants, many partnerships, and filter the best options for you.
What Topics Are Most Appropriate?
When it comes to topics for amateur blogging, almost everything can stay on your list. As we mentioned before, everything starts from your passions. Choose your topics according to what you enjoy and what you are good at. The most successful texts are those written with joy and with certain know-how related to the subject.
Don’t write just because you heard that certain topics are in fashion these days. Usually, if you don’t transmit comfort and ease through your words, people will not react well to your texts, and they will not come, nor return on your blog page.
So, when it comes to choosing topics, focus on yourself, not on what you might think others want. Amateur blogging is all about expressing yourself and sharing with others what is authentic in your experience. This way you even have the chance to be of help to many others.
How to Become an Amateur Blogger
Usually, if you intend to be a blogger, the solution to become a blogger is super easy. Just start blogging. Don’t overthink it. Start writing, even if your texts are not top quality from the very beginning.
You should start your amateur blog if you enjoy this activity, and have some topic ideas in mind. Or maybe you are in an activity field that not many have access to and your insights would be exotic and interesting for others. Or maybe you have a lot of interesting experiences in your life that are worth sharing.
You only need a little time to start writing. Usually, if the idea is clear and you have the facts, it won’t take that much of your time.
The rest is easy. These days numerous online platforms allow you to open a webpage that best fits the blogging format. So opening your blog account is a fast one-time procedure. And after that, you can start posting whenever you want.
These web hosts even allow you to customize the appearance of your page, so it can better fit your requirements and the style of your writing.
Blog Posts Tips
You should don’t overstress yourself when it comes to amateur blogging. However, some tips about how to create and deliver blog posts will help you achieve top results.
- Writing Posts – everything starts from ideas. So before actually starting your actual writing, just organize your ideas. Determine exactly what you want to approach in your current text and what is your point of view on the topic. Only after this step start writing.
- Add Graphics, Images – This will have a positive effect on your readers. They will be encouraged to read you more often, plus the ideas that you put into writing will be better explained. You can have a double impact on your readers by comp0ining words and images.
- An Attractive Headline – Although you should express your ideas freely you should pay more attention when you choose the headlines for your text. Give it time, try several variants, and choose the most attractive and clear title. The headline alone can make your blog successful. At the same time, even if you have great ideas inside your texts, people tend to ignore them if they do not feel compelled by titles. It could be of great help if you also search online what other similar texts are using as their headlines. Of course, we do not encourage you to copy them. But this activity might make you understand better what a good blog headline is. You will gain experience, so to speak.
- Keep in Mind SEO Optimization – although you are an amateur blogger, SEO still needs to be one of your preoccupations. In the absence of search engine optimization, you risk remaining completely anonymous and readers will not reach your posts. Sure, nobody expects you to do SEO like a pro, but you should focus on some basics. Use words and phrases that help your text being discovered online, in search engines, by people that are interested in your topics. There are many tutorials and articles online that will teach you how to use strategic keywords, titles, templates, and even how to insert URLs successfully. It would be a pity if your great texts do not reach those who would enjoy and need them.
- Constant Posting – your amateur blog will highly benefit from a constant posting timeline. Of course, you could approach blogging in a relaxed manner and write only when you feel like it. However, a regular weekly posting schedule will attract more readers, will make your blog appear higher up in searches, and will give your readers a sense of credibility and respect.
- Leverage Social Media – advertise your blog on every social media that you are currently on. Share each blog post, start discussions with your followers on other social media, and invite them to read your blog.
Quality Content
We told you not to overthink the blogging activity and just start writing. However, this doesn’t mean that we encourage bad quality and writing. Your readers deserve to receive your precious information and experiences in the best way. Without transforming this activity into a headache, we recommend you make a habit of the following activities, every time you start writing a blog post:
- Research – readers need a correct and precise text. So always double-check the information you put down “on paper”. Even if you are an amateur blogger, you become something like a journalist. Get inspired by them and check your ideas from at least 3 sources. Especially if you are not certain or if they are new elements that you deal with. Correctness is also a way of becoming a reliable online source that readers are eager to return to every time. Being a trustworthy online writer can make you stand out among so many other bloggers, which flood the internet with fake or incorrect data.
- Clarity – when you start writing, remember that the best texts are those which present clear ideas. You should take into account the fact that your readers come from various backgrounds and they might not know anything about the topic. You need to present the information simply, for a diverse audience. Clarity of ideas also means fluidity of your text. Thus your readers will have the chance to learn something new in a relaxing manner. Which also gathers blogger popularity points for you and your blog page.
- Write freely – personal style is the best approach for your texts. Readers are sick of formulas and of reading the same things from numerous sources. If you develop a personal manner of presenting ideas and a certain selection of words and phrases that represent your authentic point of view, readers will become regulars. Let your ideas flow freely while arranging them in writing, so they can let everybody feel the naturalness and spontaneity.
- Grammar – although you are an amateur blogger, amateurship is not a pleasant characteristic for any blogger. Grammar mistakes create this amateurship feel, and you simply cannot allow them to exist in your blog posts. Take some time to edit each text before posting. Nowadays numerous online grammar correctors will do this job for you in no time.
Amateur Blogging Mistakes
Though you cannot completely avoid making at least a few mistakes, especially when you just start this activity, fear not. In time you will learn to avoid mistakes. Happily, nothing is that severe as to ruin your amateur blogging career before starting. Plus, we will present you with the most common mistakes that beginner amateur bloggers tend to do. So you can completely avoid these:
- Choosing an unclear niche, or writing about various topics, that do not get well together. This in time will repeal most of your readers.
- Choosing the wrong niche. Like something that you are not good at, but you chose because is popular or think you will attract more readers.
- Not paying attention and not using keywords, URLs.
- Using titles and headlines that are attractive but do not match the contents. Click baits will ruin your online credibility.
- Using content from other bloggers and webpages, without bringing something new or personal.
- Not posting periodically.
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