Blogging isn’t dead as what other people are saying. The truth is blogging remains relevant, but there’s one thing about it. It’s evolving. 

 

The types of content that had caught people’s attention before may completely be irrelevant today. 

 

That’s why, as a newbie blogger, you shouldn’t remain the same. 

 

You should evolve with the trend. 

 

Now, for newbie bloggers like me, the only way we can establish our brand or make people notice our blog is to learn the skills necessary to build a successful blog.

 

And we’re not talking about one skill here.

 

Bloggers are generalists, and blogging is similar to running a business. 

 

You’re the CEO, accountant, merchandiser, and all things. 

 

In blogging, you’re the writer, designer, and founder. In short, you wear several hats. 

 

Today, we’ll go over the important skills every newbie blogger should know to create a successful blog.

Top 5 Skills Needed For Newbie Writers

1. Content writing

 

Having strong writing skills is essential for new bloggers because blogging is about sharing valuable content with your readers. 

 

If you don’t know how to write in English or construct basic sentences, then take your time to learn from the ground up. 

 

This isn’t a sprint, and blogs are not going away soon, so you have all the time to pick up and improve your skill.

 

Start with writing short sentences, like social media posts. 

 

You can also start a free blog at WordPress and use it as a platform to practice your writing skills and, even better, build a good writing habit. 

 

2. SEO

 

Search Engine Optimization plays a huge part in ranking your blog or site. 

 

What I mean is that, if you want to eventually monetize your blog, as early as now, you should learn about SEO. 

 

Many people find SEO a complicated skill, and it may be for others. 

 

But really, the goal of SEO is to rank your blog on the first page of Google (or any search engine) using particular keywords. This way, people can easily find your site.

 

It’s not easy to get a better ranking because you need to build your authority, do some networking, and lastly, you need to be good at keyword research. 

 

It’s also important to take note that SEO is a long-term marketing strategy. If you apply some tactics today, don’t expect that tomorrow you’ll get to the top of Google’s results page. 

 

It takes time for search engines to crawl your pages. You can, however, see the result after a few weeks or even months if you apply the correct SEO strategies.  

 

SEO is a broad topic, and it may be confusing for newbies. 

 

But there are several SEO courses online that you can learn for free, so you can gain insights into what it’s about. 

 

3. Design

 

Design is my favorite part of building this blog. 

 

Actually, I’ve changed my site’s theme and layout countless times. I enjoyed the process, but now I’m trying to settle on one theme, and I say you should do the same.

 

Because it’s a lot of work if you change your theme often, other parts of your site get displaced, so you need to make adjustments on them, too, which is time-consuming. 

 

If I may suggest, if you plan to monetize your blog in the long run, it’s much better to go with a premium theme from the beginning. 

 

Unlike free themes, you have more control over your site’s layout and design using a paid theme. You have access to more features that free themes don’t have.

 

For blog images and designs, my secret tool is Canva, and it’s free!

 

It’s one of the tools I can’t live without. 

 

You don’t have to be a pro graphic designer to use Canva. It’s very user-friendly. 

 

In fact, you can design blog images, logos, and icons in mere minutes. 

 

Canva has design templates that are ready to use, or if you want to add a personal touch to your designs, you can also customize a template to your liking. 

 

And it has high-quality images, too, that you can use for free. 

 

I know lots of bloggers are using Canva for their designs. And even if the free plan has limitations, it has tremendous options available for newbie bloggers. 

 

4. Networking

 

I think this is the part that most newbie bloggers don’t like much. 

 

Just hearing the word networking puts other newbie bloggers off. I can’t blame them. 

 

But being able to make connections is an essential element for the success of your blog. 

 

In general, networking implies making connections to people in the same industry, reaching out to fellow site owners to offer something of value, and, lastly, building a community or following. 

 

You might think, “That sounds like a lot of hard work, Mel.”

 

Indeed it is, but if you have a system in place, it’ll be faster and easy. 

 

Again, I want you to keep this in mind as it’s crucial for every blogger. 

 

In whatever you do, keep everything simple.

 

Don’t complicate things or make everything look perfect. Getting things done is more important in the beginning, not being perfect, okay? 

 

Don’t be a victim of analysis paralysis because you can’t write the perfect outreach email to a successful blogger you want to connect to. Or because you want to send a perfect reply.

 

Get things done first, okay?

 

5. Time Management

 

Blogging isn’t only one thing.

 

And unless you don’t have a full-time job, then you can spend all your day growing your blog.

 

But most people who’ve started blogging did it on the side. 

 

That means they had a full-time job, responsibilities, and priorities. 

 

If you’re the same, you need to dedicate a portion of your free time for blogging. 

 

You need to manage your time if you want to start blogging, but you have full-time work.

 

Whether it’s just an hour or two every day, what’s essential in blogging is being consistent. 

 

So find time within your day to look at your blog and make beneficial changes to it, like adding a post, or even just outlining a post, improving your SEO, or creating social media pages.

 

Make sure there’s not a day that passes by that you haven’t done anything to grow your blog.

 

Every marginal improvement you make today will have a significant impact on your blog in the future.

 

Conclusion

 

The best thing about being a newbie, not only in writing but in everything else, is the learning process. 

 

You get to learn many things you didn’t know before. You become knowledgeable. 

 

And who knows? Perhaps your pursuit of learning will bring you greater things and will let you find your passion.

All of these skills I’ve mentioned above are learnable, but nothing beats the “doing.”

 

If you learn one trick or strategy today, apply it. Write about it or use it several times until it becomes a useful skill.