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With a number of websites offering free blog facilities, starting a blog is one of the easiest ways to write regularly and build up an audience for your words. Blogs essentially take two forms: you can either treat it like a diary, and write about what you’ve been up to; or you can dedicate your blog to a certain subject and blog about that. Blogs are particularly good if you prefer writing non-fiction to creative writing, and in addition to helping you to develop your written English skills, a blog will also help improve your employability, giving you something extra to put on your UCAS form or CV.
The first step to starting a blog is to decide what you want to write about. This should be something meaningful to you; if you’re into a particular sport, for example, you could devote your blog to that; if you’re passionate about politics, you could offer your political insights. The main thing is to write about what you’re interested in; your enthusiasm will come across to readers and you’ll find it easier both to build your audience and to write regular posts. You don’t have to be a web designer or developer to set up a blog. Here are some tips to help you get started:
– Platforms such as WordPress and Blogger offer free blogging facilities and templates, so that all you need to do is customise the colours and photos to suit you. Blogs from these sites have a pre-made, user-friendly admin area, so that adding a new post is very straightforward.
– Blog posts can be whatever length you want; anything between 400 – 2,000 words is perfectly acceptable.
– Include photos in your posts to make them more interesting.
– Link out to other sites on relevant issues; the people who run those sites will become aware of your blog and may become regular readers.
– Build up your audience by wording your titles in a search-friendly way – that means the title of your post should use phrases people might search for in Google; for example, “What’s the difference between X and Y?” or “How to earn money in your spare time”.
– Use Twitter and Facebook to share your new blog posts so that people get to know about your blog.
– Offer to write posts on other blogs that discuss the same subjects; that way, you’ll get your blog in front of the audiences of bigger blogs and you may gain readers.
Having an audience for your writing is an excellent motivation for sharpening up your English skills, and your blog will prove a satisfying platform for your regular writings as your readership starts to grow.