So, you've set up your blog. Congrats! You've chosen the name, got a great looking theme, and everything looks exactly the way you dreamed it would.

Now it's time to start the work of blogging. And that means writing your very first blog entry. All blogs have to start somewhere, so make sure your first impression on the blogosphere is a good one!

You probably already know how integral the process of blogging is to the success of your marketing efforts. Which is why it goes without saying it's exceptionally important to learn how to effectively start and manage a blog in a way that supports your business.

Without a blog, you'll find yourself experiencing a number of problems such as poor search engine optimization (SEO), lack of promotional content for social.

In order to increase organic traffic, acquire more leads, and grow revenue, you need to continually produce quality posts. Here are some tips to guide you on how to get started:

Write Top 10 Epic Posts On Your Niche

You need ideas. Many ideas, not only for your first post, but for your next posts too. Start by creating top 10 epic posts on your particular niche.

These top 10 posts is like a blueprint or the odyssey of your entire blog. In the days to come, you will be creating more suplementaries, expositions, commentaries and updates based on these top 10 epic posts. Create these posts so that it can be shared again and again. That's why it is called epic post.

Epic content is the content that rocks a reader's world. It gives them hope and strengthens the trust they have for you. Epic content is content that makes people stop whatever they’re doing to read, share, and link to it.

You need to pay more focus on these 10 posts. Edit, update, edit and update these post whenever you can. Your blog business will have higher chance of success when these posts become popular and get more backlinks to these pages.

Let these posts be featured on your homepage and social pages like Linkedin.

When You Start Writing Your Post, Write

When I was just starting out, I made the following mistakes. I urge you to avoid:

• I was editing
• I was formatting
• I was correcting my mistakes
• I was creating images during the time I'd set aside to write

Don't do this! Just write.

Crafting a Winning Headline

Purpose of headlines is to draw readers into a story. Present tense is usually used to describe past events in headlines because it's the tense of immediacy. It's more vivid.

Make the headline unique. Be ultra-specific. It should convey a sense of urgency. Your headline has to be useful.

• Speak to Your Audience
• Use Psychological Trigger Words
• Read News Headlines for Inspiration
• Use a Good Headline Formula
• State a Major Benefit or Propose a Puzzling Question

Make Visuals To Complement Blog Posts

Media like images and videos make your blog posts more visually appealing and memorable. Consumers remember 65% of visual content versus only 10% of written content, meaning that adding visual media to your blogs can help readers retain information and remember your brand.

Another way to help your blog content resonate with readers is to develop original images for your blog. This applies to blog headers as well as original infographics, graphs, and other types of visual media.

On-Page SEO Tips

The title of your post should include the primary keyword, preferably at the beginning.

Try not to make it longer than 55 characters. Check it on Headline Analyzer.

In the Meta Description, don't forget to write up to 140 characters on your post. Include your primary keyword in the description.

Use keywords in the filenames of images. (e.g., epic-post.jpg).

Optimize the images by reducing their size to speed up the loading of your page.

The URL/Permalink of your blog post must only include the primary keyword. (It can also be a relevant word or a synonym.)

Create the Perfect Call to Action

Your call to action (CTA) is the most essential part of your marketing campaign. It's also the difference between losing a potential customer and making a sale.

What Is a Call to Action?

A call to action (CTA) is a word, phrase, or sentence that prompts the reader to take a specific action. CTAs are usually placed in the form of a button in a prominent spot on your webpage:

In short, call to action get customers to do what you want them to.

But it's important to remember that not all calls to action are created equal. Some are strong, powerful, and persuasive. Others are weak, boring, and uninviting.

When done well, CTA page buttons will be large and stand apart from the rest of the page. You'll notice in the example above, our call to action has a compelling style, headline with subheader text.

What You Need to Do After Publishing Your Blog Posts

You need visitors, right? Many visitors.

The main task in the development of your blog is to promote each of your blog posts. You shouldn't be afraid to ask for help. When you address people who are interested in your topic, the results will come quickly.

There are 6 main ways to gain traffic:

• SEO
• Social Media
• Direct Traffic
• Referral Traffic
• Networking
• Email Marketing

The Real Secrets

The secret is not in writing many posts but in creating quality shareable posts. When you get 100 visitors, and they like it, there are high chances that 1000 more people will like it, and so millions more. What you need to do is promote your posts, again and again, including through paid promotion, till millions and billions read them.

SEO is a long-term strategy and SEO needs time. Pay attention on optimizing your blog to get the best result out of your blog.

Don't give up on the process! You'll surely reap the result in 5 years time. The road to becoming a successful, financially independent blogger is long and hard but the rewards of reaching your goal can be very satisfying.