Adriana Sklenarikova
Welcome to The Beautiful Blogger, a regular column from the team at Bloggeroid, where we bring you inspiration and advice for achieving better blog posts.
The Evolution Of A Blogger
With each passing month, blogging is evolving, and along with it, our approach to the “grammar of blogging.” Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane to revisit some of the most important changes that the blogging world has witnessed in recent years. The following changes will familiarize you with the evolution of blogging and the significant role that you, the writer, will play in its future.
Personal Branding Vs. Marketing
In the early days of blogging, when websites were relatively uncommon and SEO (search engine optimization) was not yet an essential part of marketing, content authors used to focus almost entirely on marketing their articles, focusing on key phrases and ensuring that their articles were optimized for search. This is referred to as “keyword stuffing” or “keyword polishing,” and it was basically an exercise in trying to game the system to get more views and more clicks.
Today, with content creation being democratized and the rise of influencers and content creators focused on providing value and engaging with their audiences, the line between editorial and sponsored content has blurred. Marketers and content creators alike now have a strong incentive to create long-form content that is as close to editorial as possible. Why? Personal branding is more effective when the content closely mirrors the tone, personality, and style of the business or brand. If the content doesn’t match the brand’s identity, audiences will perceive it as advertising, even if it’s clearly labeled as content marketing.
The Rise Of Scheduling Posts
In the early days of blogging, anyone with a brain and a laptop could blog. You could even set your blog up with a free blogger account and start posting immediately. But back then, consistent content was not yet a priority, so early bloggers often did not bother scheduling posts or even identifying a set schedule. They would simply post whenever they had new content to share, often with little or no regard for whether or not their posts were going to be useful to their audiences.
As blogging grew in popularity and became a more established form of online communication, early bloggers began to see the value in establishing and sticking to a posting schedule. They wanted to ensure that their posts were of high value and would be useful to their audiences. As a result, many early bloggers adopted a weekly schedule, and those that didn’t soon found themselves struggling to maintain even a single post a month. Scheduling posts has become so prevalent in the blogging world that many platforms have built in weekly scheduling into their features.
The Influencer And Brand Partnership
In the early days of blogging, marketers would occasionally fund short-lived celebrity blogs to promote a brand. These were typically very brief blogs that would often only post once or twice a week and were frequently deleted once the promotion ended. But in recent years, as brands have recognized the value of creating long-living content that is distributed across numerous platforms and platforms, influencers and brand partnerships have become commonplace. The key to creating successful content with an influencer or brand is to make the content relevant to both the brand and the audience. An effective strategy for doing this is to integrate the content into the regular blogging schedule of the business or brand, creating a bridge between the online and offline worlds. For example, if you are working with an online clothing brand, you can partner with a local fashion influencer to establish a fashion blog that promotes and discusses the brand’s products. Or if you are working with a skincare brand, you can establish a blog that focuses on makeup and beauty tips alongside featuring the brand’s products.
The Rise Of Commenting And Sharing
In the early days of blogging, sharing and commenting were not yet part of the core user experience. People would share links to other blogs and would comment on those blogs to show support and engage with the writer of the blog they were sharing. But as the value of content grew and spread, it became clear that readers wanted to engage with the content creators themselves, not just the pieces of content that they shared. As a result, commenting and sharing were built into WordPress to provide this experience, and websites that use the platform routinely feature these experiences as a key part of their user experience.
The Rise Of Video Content
Video content is everywhere, and it’s only getting more prominent each day. Online marketplaces, social media platforms, and even blogging platforms like WordPress have all integrated video content into their offering.
In the past, video content would typically be used as an SEO tactic, with the idea being that adding video content to a website would increase the chance of that page being featured by Google search engines. While that strategy still exists, video content is becoming increasingly valuable as a communication tool, one that can be used to educate, entertain, or inform the viewer.
If you’re a blogger, you can use video content in a variety of ways, from short video clips to full-blown documentaries. As video content becomes more accessible and easier to produce, the number of creators and content authors that can leverage this form of content will grow.
WordPress As A Content Platform
WordPress is one of the oldest blogging platforms still in use today, and it’s also one of the most versatile. Not only can you use WordPress to establish a simple blog, but you can also take advantage of the platform’s various features to create a more sophisticated publication.
Let’s look at each part of WordPress and how you can use it to create a more comprehensive blog post.
The Front Page
On the front page of your WordPress blog, you will see a variety of posts, typically ordered from newest to oldest. These are usually your most recent content, with a few older posts mixed in.
Each post has a featured image (also known as the “cover photo”), video, and a number of status updates, called “news items.” You can add more items to your front page by clicking the “+” icon at the end of any item.
You can customize the look of your front page by clicking the “Customize” button at the end of the page. From here, you can add or remove posts from the homepage, as well as rearrange the existing posts on the page. Make sure you leave enough room for the post that you want to feature in the future.
The Post
Once you’ve published your blog post, it will be available for others to read. This is where the magic of WordPress really happens. Anyone with a basic knowledge of HTML will be able to understand and modify the content on your blog, as well as add new content that will eventually replace what you’ve posted. This is a huge advantage to having a platform like WordPress that can be accessed and modified by anyone.
At the end of each post, you will see the following:
- An About Us section, containing your blog’s name and a description of what you do
- A contact form, which allows visitors to get in touch with you
- A share buttons, for those who want to share the post on social media
The Comment Section
In the early days of blogging, comments were a way for audiences to engage with content creators. If someone posted a comment on your blog post, you would typically reply to that comment, engaging with the commenter and inviting them to share their thoughts on your blog again.
However, as audiences have learned to value content above all else, comment sections have become less of a focus. If you leave a comment on a blog post, you will see the following at the end of the post:
- A comment section, featuring the comments left by audiences on your blog post
- A reply link, allowing you to engage with commenters
- A link to the original blog post, for those who want to read more
To add a comment to your WordPress blog, click the “Add New” button at the end of the comment form.
