How starting a WordPress blog can help students in the future
Having a WordPress blog is important for building your online brand. Blogging is more than just writing. Blogging can open many doors for you in all aspects of your life. Whether you start blogging for your career, business strategy or just to document your life, it will advantage your life regardless.
Why you need to start a WordPress blog
From a business and financial perspective
- If you’re in a digital, business or marketing career or wish to have one; clients will like to see that you practice what you preach and have a blog as an example of your professionalism.
- It’s usually free, or affordable for more professional versions of WordPress.
- You don’t need prior knowledge of HTML and CSS, so anyone can do it.
- A blog looks great on your CV as prospective employers can find out more about you, and your creativity and personality on your blog could lead to an interview. Also the skills you gain from blogging such as content creation, SEO, social media and link building will be very attractive to employers.
- If you aim to start a business in future, having a blog and a strong following can be invaluable when you launch. Link it to your business website pages so people can read about your story, experiences and understand where you are coming from. Doing business is about connecting with people as much as providing a product or service. Have a look at https://www.fernandobiz.com/ as an example.
- If your blog really makes an impact, you can make a lot of money from it. It can provide many opportunities such as being paid to promote products or other brands.
- It can also lead to other opportunities such as a book deals, consulting, speaking engagements, fashion and beauty ranges, or TV work. These all mean extra income for you. It has given some people financial stability, but this was after years of hard work and dedication.
From a psychological perspective
- Blogging helps you to grow as a person.
- It helps you to be creative when thinking of new ideas and it improves your writing ability.
- It encourages you to have more adventures and have stronger opinions to share.
- It builds confidence as you learn to voice your opinions and share your experiences. When people comment back this can also be a much appreciate boost to your self esteem.
- Raise awareness of issues and raise funds for charity through your blog. Blogging can seem quite self-centric at times. Helping others has been found to be a great way to feel happy, make a change in the world and use your voice for good causes.
- Blogging has been found to be therapeutic, as you are sharing aspects of yourself and keeping a journal online of your life which you can reflect on later.
- You’re free to discuss or share whatever you like, although this can be a challenge to keep it up to date. This freedom of expression can help immensely with feeling content.
- They help you connect with people and relate to their lives. Your blog can be useful for other people who wish to know more about your business niche or have had similar experiences.
- Blogs give you a hobby and something to focus on and strive for outside of everyday activities.
- Blogs will last forever, so make sure your voice is heard online and build a legacy.
How easy is it to start a WordPress blog?
It’s very easy to start a WordPress blog as the system does most of the hard work for you. You control the theme of the site, where it’s hosted, what plug-ins to use and, of course, the content.
What is WordPress?
- WordPress a content management system (CMS) and one of the biggest blogging platforms in the world, so it’s an ideal place to start.
- It has countless plug-ins and add-ons and many ways to style and design your blog so each one is unique.
- It’s easy to set up and free to use. It also allows people to comment and share easily and it looks great when published. There are other platforms such as Tumblr and Blogger.
Free blogs and own domain blogs
- You can choose to have a free blog; this will include your CMS name for example wordpress.com. If you don’t mind this in your URL then keep your free account. Free blogs will be owned by whoever hosts the content i.e. WordPress. This means your content can be deleted without your approval.
- For more professional use and a better look, it’s advisable to have your own domain blog. This ensures that you are in charge of your blog and own it. Also your URL will look better on a domain that is yours; you decide what it looks like and your CMS won’t be included. Don’t worry though, self-hosting is quite affordable.
- The domain is the URL or address for example, google.com
- The hosting provider is the company who you pay to put your website on the internet, such as SeekaHost. Most hosts allow you to post your WordPress content very easily. Shop around for the provider that will suit you the best.
Design and customise
- There are free WordPress themes and ones you can buy.
- Choose something that suits your personality or the topics of your blog. A blog dedicated to animals will have a different theme to blog about fashion. WordPress allows you to change the appearance of the theme if you get bored, without losing any content.
- Make it easy to navigate and nice to look at. It’s important to keep people engaged as they usually spend a few seconds on a webpage. If it’s unappealing they’ll spend even less time.
- Have sub-headings in bold and a mixture of short paragraphs and bullet points. These are much more attractive to read as they are easy to scan and seem less time consuming to the reader than a large paragraph.
- Colour- too many colours can be disorientating. Use 2-3 main colours and use them throughout your blog. This makes your blog look tidier but is also easier on the eyes for readers.
- The Sidebar- choose what to have on your sidebar carefully. Make sure it’s not too cluttered and that it has a few important and useful widgets for your readers.
- Plug-ins and add-ons are software extensions to add to the functionality of a blog. There can be share button plug-ins. With one click they can be installed.
- Widgets are small applications that can be imbedded into software such as phones and blogs. Typically, they are used to show pictures, clocks and weather forecasts. It takes small chunks of information from sites and displays it on other sites.
WordPress helps you with any queries or difficulties when managing a blog, but the best way to learn is to be shown by an experienced WordPress user. After a few years of consistent blogging who knows where your blog might have taken you. Contact us and start ASAP. Let a WordPress blog open doors for your career that you never expected.
Author Profile
- I'm a digitally inspired, e-Business professional. I write about digital marketing, social media and how psychology impacts modern day online buying behaviours and how people do business on the web.
