Learn how to blog

Step 1: Get Started - The Blog Starter

The entire process of getting your blog setup and ready should only take you about 20 minutes. After that your blog will be online and ready for you to start blogging!

Before you can start blogging there are two things you need to do:

1. Pick a domain name.

Already have a domain registered? Jump to #2

The domain name for this blog is theblogstarter.com. If you type that domain name into an internet browser anywhere in the world you will be sent to this site.

Good blog names are unique and descriptive, so your audience will immediately know what your blog is about.

Another option is to simply use your own name. For example, I have registered scottchow.com. You can also add your middle name or middle initial if you find your name is already taken.

Many of the top bloggers use their own name as their domain name. This has the added benefit of preventing someone else from registering your name, allowing you to secure your “virtual real estate”.

Need help finding a name for your blog? Message me and I will help you personally (for free)!

Once you have some blog name ideas you will need to choose a domain extension.
.com is the gold standard, but .net and .org work just as well. I would suggest staying away from other extensions like .us or .biz, as they are not as familiar to most people.

You may find that the domain name you want is already taken. This happens to all of us. In fact, it happened to me with this site. Blogstarter.com was already taken, so instead, I chose theblogstarter.com. If you find that your desired name is already taken you can try adding simple words like “the”, “a”, or “my” to the beginning of the name, or you can try adding dashes between words such as the-blog-starter.com.

             See if your domain is available

Note: You cannot use any punctuation other than dashes in a domain name.

2. Choose a web host.

A web host is a company that stores all of the files for your blog and delivers them to the user when they type in your domain name. You must have a web host in order to have a blog.

Choosing a bad host will doom your blog from the beginning. Users will be frustrated with slow page loading times and you may often find that your blog is simply not working at all (yikes!).

There are hundreds of different web hosts you can choose from, but my recommendation for your blog is BlueHost. In fact, BlueHost is the web host I use for theblogstarter.com. I have been very happy with BlueHost for many years now, and recommend them for all new bloggers because:

• They offer a free, simple installation of all the popular blogging tools, including WordPress (the one I recommend and show you how to use in this guide).
• They have been recommended by WordPress since 2005 and currently host over 2 million websites.
• They offer industry leading 24/7 customer service via phone, email, or web chat.
• They offer a 30 day money-back guarantee if you are unsatisfied for any reason.

Because BlueHost is a top-quality web host they cost a bit more ($5.99 per month) than low-quality hosts. There is a way to get a discount though. If you use one of the links on this site by November 28th you can get BlueHost’s Black Friday Sale price of $2.75 per month, including a free domain name.

Disclosure: When you use these discount links BlueHost compensates me, so all of my help is free of charge to you!

What’s Next?

Click on the next step for a complete step-by-step walk-through of how to register your domain name and setup your blog. If you have any issues during this process you can always contact me for free help.

In fact, if you have any trouble at all creating your blog with this tutorial, just contact me and I will do it for you. BlueHost compensates me when you purchase through my link, so my services are free of charge to you!

Learn Blogging Basics (2022): Free Resources for Beginners

Thinking of starting your own blog?

Well, you’re not alone. While many people think about starting a blog – not many end up running a successful blog. Do you know why? Because they lack the experience.

If you’re one of them – worry no more. Your search for a blogging guide ends here. We are here to share some valuable tips about starting your blog successfully.

Read more:

How to Start a Blog: Step-by-Step Guide

Also, we’ve compiled some of the best, most helpful resources about blogging to help make learning to blog an enjoyable experience for you. Here, we have a collection of excellent tutorials, guides, and informative articles in the order that we want them to be read. Whether you are 15 or 85, you can create your own blog in less than 20 minutes.

Learn blogging with us now through our guide on blogging basics – let’s get started!

What is a blog?

A blog is derived from a “weblog,” a term used to describe websites that display information on a particular topic or several topics. A blog has a diary-like interface where the latest content is displayed at the top and the older posts in subsequent positions.

Blogs can drive traffic to your website, convert that traffic into leads, and ultimately boost your business. Reports suggest that organizations that prioritize blogging are 13 times more likely to see positive ROI.

It also helps you to create an online presence, attract leads, and engage with a vast audience as you show your expertise in a specific industry. The industries can range from personal to political and can focus on just one subject or a whole range of topics.

Why is blogging so popular?

Blogs have become just as popular as websites, with their own search engines, forums, and ad directories. And no doubt, they’ve gained this popularity for all the right reasons.

Firstly, blogs are popular because they are just so easy to use.

Blogging makes it easier to assert the online presence of your personal or professional brand. You can make yourself popular as an expert in an online field or a particular topic by regularly publishing content.

Secondly, blogging works exceptionally well as a search engine optimization tool for web creators and entrepreneurs because search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo appreciate unique content.

Thirdly, it is one of the cheapest and effective forms of promotion you can get for your services and products. Blogs can be a fantastic way of expanding your online store by driving visitors to your blog. Still, this can only be accomplished with the right strategy.

Beginner blogger topics

People pursue blogging for many reasons, but the most popular ones are to share their knowledge, document their thoughts, earn money passively, review gadgets or products, or to travel the world.

If you want to become a blogger for any of these reasons, our blogging basics can help you to achieve that. But first, you need to know what blogs are and how you can run one yourself.

We will walk you through some of the ways you can easily set up your personal or business blog. Our easy-to-follow guide will help you to understand the reasons why you need to start a blog, how to start it right, and the types of professional blogs prevalent online today. But remember, the first thing you need to do is choose a niche you are passionate about.

In addition to that, we’ll also share our tried-and-tested blogging tips to help you avoid all of the blogging mistakes most newbies make.

Technology topics

A successful blog must be built on a secure technical foundation to achieve its strategic goals.

Although an effective content strategy helps in generating traffic for your blog, the technical aspects of your blog are also crucial for its success.

Therefore, before writing and publishing your blog, you need to first understand the technological grounds on which your blog works. Some of the factors to be considered include a memorable domain, a reliable web hosting service, and a suitable blogging platform.

We will introduce you to some of the best blogging platforms available with a heightened focus on WordPress as it offers the most customization options for free.

Another topic that you need to take into account is choosing your blog name. Many online tools can help you to come up with the perfect name, such as name generators and other services that you can use when you want a catchy blog title or an apt blog name. It all depends on your preferences.

Content-related topics

This is the point at which you need to start thinking about the topics and the content-niche you want to write about.

As far as content is concerned, you need to start researching potential topics that you can write about. For content ideas, you can browse through our compilation of topics, or you can search on the web for topics specific to your niche that are attracting the most traffic.

This will give you an idea about the latest trends in the blogging industry and how other bloggers are interacting with their audience.

We will help you to create a content plan so that you can populate your blog with targeted posts and strategies for audience development and growth.

On top of that, we offer tips on creating value-added content and using flawless language verified through credible grammar checker tools. These tips will assist you in producing quality content that can attract traffic and ultimately convert them into subscribers.

Our guides will completely sort out any problems related to a lack of content ideas. It will also help you to present your content in a way that increases your reader base and maintains it in the long term.

Setting up a blog and writing valuable content to engage your readers is just not enough. You also need to promote it through effective strategies to expose it to a bigger audience.

Remember, sharing it on social media is often pointless unless you have millions of fans and followers who get awestruck by every word that comes out of your mouth.

Through our guides, you will learn what blog marketing is and how you can effectively execute it with an efficient marketing plan in place. Not only this, but you will also learn how to optimize your blog for search engine optimization and quickly increase the traffic to your blog.

These strategies work for business, professional blogs, and personal blogs.

Making money from a blog is a real challenge, primarily if it generates less than 1,000 visitors per day. But, with a little bit of persistence and hard work – anything is possible. It takes time and effort to build an income from blogging, and no blogger has ever become successful overnight.

To monetize your blog, you need to identify the stage of blogging you are at and grow from there to achieve the desired results.

Our in-depth guides will help you monetize your new blog by helping you find some unique money-making opportunities. We advise that you start with affiliate marketing first and then move on to other methods of monetization.

Other skills that you will learn with us include selling services and products online via a website that works like a digital store.

You can attract customers to your website and reach out to potential buyers through marketing tactics and promotional campaigns.

Finally, if you want to change careers, our guides will help you with some promising tips on selling your high-functioning blog for a ball-park price of six figures.

Additional resources

To learn blogging from scratch and master it, leverage our useful blogging resources that will help you to upskill from home. Our resources include how-to guides that provide step-by-step tips and information on various blogging topics. This includes answering your queries about changing your blogging platform or switching your web-hosting providers, etc.

Also, check out our easy-to-follow video tutorials that cover WordPress blogging tutorials and other blogging basics. These video guides offer visual instructions that help you to understand what blogging is and how you can be successful at it.

Also, if you are new to content creation, launching a new blog can be an intimidating task. We are here to offer you the right tools that will assist you in achieving your desired goals.

Take a look at our resources to find out what tools and services are the best for your blog. Start making money online today.

Conclusion

If you are looking for the perfect medium to share your insights and opinions with a vast audience, blogging is the ideal choice.

It is the most affordable option to promote your products or services to the outside world. From planning compelling content topics to hosting them on a reliable blog hosting platform, we will assist you with expert tips every step of the way.

Not only this, but we’ll also help you to promote your content through different marketing channels. You’ll also learn how to monetize your blog by renting your ad space, through affiliate marketing, or simply by selling your own products and services.

If you are still facing problems with setting up your blog or if you have any questions, you can head over to our website. We offer easy to follow guides on various blogging topics as well as all of the right tools that you need to kick start your own blog.

A complete guide from A to Z

Are you going to publish your first post and tell the Instagram world about yourself, but don't know how? Or maybe you already have a blog, but are not satisfied with it? What about earnings? Is your profile bringing in enough customers or would you like more?

You are reading the complete guide on how to start blogging on Instagram. In this article I talk about what points to pay close attention to in maintaining an account. Consider everything:

• niche selection,
• target audience,
• competitor analysis,
• account creation,
• useful applications in profile management,
• writing posts and publishing stories,
• free and paid promotion methods,
• forbidden topics.

In almost every block you will find links to more detailed articles. I recommend reading each, in them I tried to answer all possible questions.

In this article you will learn:

What do you need to do before starting an Instagram account?

Look, there are hundreds of happy wives, needlewomen, fitonies and knitters, knitters, photographers, trainers on Instagram. If you write about the same things they write about, then you will simply drown in a mass of similar blogs.

You need your own chip, and instagram doesn't need another blog .

Get your account started right with Lecture "The Content Engine" .

As a result of the lecture, you will receive a scheme that will help you sell more on Instagram without constantly posting stories.

Bonus - ready-made content plan for an expert for a month!

Read more

Start with market analysis

Before you learn how to run Instagram, you need to start with market analysis . I'm not talking about serious marketing analysis, you just don't have the resources and experience to do it. I encourage you to see what people are searching for in your niche with:

• Yandex Wordstat,
• Google Trends,
• Comments on forums and competitor accounts.

Before the introduction of the iPad, there were PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) on the market. However, they were not popular with people: it was expensive, incomprehensible, ugly. And in 2010, Apple presents its first iPad, which combines the functions of a laptop and a smartphone.

saw the potential of the niche, responded to 's expectations and people's requests, and released the product.

To start correctly from scratch - answer the question " What do people need? »

For example:

Beginning confectioner Masha saw in Yandex.Wordstat a demand for birthday cakes for boys and girls. Based on this, Masha decided to make two main products: a birthday cake in the form of superheroes for boys and a birthday cake in the form of princesses for girls.

Use Yandex.Wordstat and Google Trends to define your niche.

Make an analysis of the target audience

It has already been said and retold about the target audience, but still I meet a bunch of comments in the style: "I don't know who my target audience is. "

Target audience is a group of people united by some feature. This includes not only existing customers, but also potential ones.

Thanks to the analysis of the target audience, you know:

• What a potential buyer is watching, reading, listening to . When developing texts and advertising, you take into account their slang, traditions, religious or political beliefs, ways of obtaining information, etc. All this increases the effect of advertising.
• Audience needs : What does your client need? what problems he faced and what he can offer her. This will allow you to make the most targeted offer. As one cliché says: An offer you can't refuse .
• What the audience breathes . You also know the people they listen to. This is especially true when buying ads from bloggers.

4 steps to define your target audience

A little reminder for those who don't know or have forgotten how to define their target audience. For this:

1. Draw a general portrait of target audience . Here, describe gender, age, geography, income level, possible professions, marital status (if it is important).
2. Divide the overall portrait into segments . If you develop a profile on Instagram, then we reduce the age of our target audience. According to official data, the average age of Instagram visitors is 18-34 years old . Agree, at 18 and at 34 there may be different needs, and this is important - this is point number 3.
3. Study the needs of the target audience . To do this, go to Google, rummage through forums, VK groups, competitor profiles and write out your assumptions in a mind map.
4. Refine product or positioning . Remember, you cannot change the habits and pains of your target audience. But you can change your product to solve the pains of the target audience.

It's like in the story about Vasya and Petya:

Vasya first made a product, and then he didn't know who to sell 1000 units of his product to.

Petya found out what people needed, made a product that solves their pain and sold everything without a trace.

Be like Petya.

For a successful start, get to know your competitors

For some reason, many associate work with competitors with struggle, conflicts or even war. Let's agree, from now on, to consider our competitors as colleagues from whom you can learn something or build up against their background. It seems to me that this point of view is more suitable for constructive affairs.

Why analyze competitors:

• to understand the differences between your own assortment and that of a competitor,
• to see its strengths and weaknesses ,
• to understand how they sell and where customers come from
• adjust their own development strategy .

Competitor analysis is also a great way to find out the pains of a client . Go to the comments under a useful post and see what questions people are asking.

Competitors are:

Key - companies whose actions can significantly affect sales (both upward and downward).

Direct - companies that sell a similar product in a similar market and work with your target audience.

Indirect - companies that sell a product with different characteristics or a completely different product, but work with your target audience. ⠀

“But how is it, Zarina. Does that mean you have to keep an eye on everyone? And when to work?

Of course, you don't have to keep track of everyone, you won't physically have time to do it. Therefore, remember the algorithm of actions:

1. Make a list of possible competitors on Instagram.
2. Divide this list into direct, key and indirect.
3. Analyze the profiles of direct competitors: profile header, avatar, content, what they offer, how much it costs, the number of subscribers, profile activity.
4. Think about where you can offer the best conditions, how you can distinguish yourself, and what ideas you can borrow.

How to start Instagram

After you have figured out your niche, target audience and competitors, you can move on to the account itself. In order for readers to notice your profile, it is important to format it correctly. This means that you need to make a header, think over the visual, write a content plan and start promoting your profile.

Decide on the type and theme of the blog

To start blogging, decide on the type of blog. On Instagram, it is customary to divide any accounts into 3 large groups: a business account, a personal blog, and an expert blog.

Business account

You will get a business account if you want to create a shop, studio or salon page. Such profiles are monetized by selling their services and products.

In terms of content, everything is simple: selling and informational posts (for example, about the benefits of your product) + rare entertaining posts or videos for engagement. There can be no personal content in the feed of a business account.

Personal blog

A personal blog is any profile whose author maintains Instagram and does not provide any services. The authors of such blogs often shoot funny and not so funny videos, comment on world events, express their opinion on topical issues in posts and stories. They also broadcast their life, relationships, sports results, nutrition, hobbies. They earn, as a rule, by selling advertising integrations.

Expert blog

Expert blogs are ideal for promoting your services. For example, if you are a makeup artist, copywriter or photographer. It is important for the authors of such blogs to work with the loyalty of the audience, increase their expertise, and engage them with interesting and useful content.

Expert blogs are monetized by selling services and training (courses, marathons, master classes).

Absolutely any field can be a topic for a blog. If you don't know what blog to start, here are two tips for choosing an account theme:

1. Blog about topics that are close to you and that you understand. If you have no idea what to write about skiing, don't write about skiing.
2. Niche and find your audience.

Let me explain the second advice. Let's say you're a psychologist. Yes, you can write about everything and a little, this area is limitless in terms of ideas for posts. But it would be much better to choose a narrower direction and better reveal each topic. This will increase your expertise and average check. For example, you can write about problems with children, relationships, or emotional burnout (the latter is a direct scourge of the 21st century, which I also faced).

Think about visual design

Instagram is a social network where the main content will always be photos and videos. Your useful publications will remain unread if the profile or post does not attract attention.

Visual design includes a profile header, an avatar and a photo of posts in the feed. Trends are constantly changing and what was relevant in 2020 has already gone out of fashion in 2022. Therefore, I will not tell you about visual trends, but I will suggest general principles that you can follow.

1. Look at the description of the target audience . Your visual should be close to those we want to attract. For example, if you sell an expensive service and are looking for solvent people, then you will never attract them if you publish a photo against the backdrop of a Soviet carpet.
2. Post quality photos . And now I’m not only talking about professional photo shoots, although they are also needed for the blog. Choose clothes, accessories and surroundings to take good photos.
3. Watch the balance of light and darkness . The photo should not have highlights or, conversely, too dark fragments.
4. Choose different angles . Do not post only selfies or only portrait photos. Make sure that different angles alternate in your feed: details, medium, long-range and ultra-long shot.
5. Process photos . You can use presets for Lightroom or edit images in other photo apps.

YouTube is full of video guides on mobile photography and editing. Look at them, it will make it easier for you to create photo content.

Design features

Each type of blog has its own design features.

The best solution for avatar business account will be the product photo. You can put a store logo on the avatar only if you are Nike, Adidas or the logo contains an image of what you are selling. In other cases, with a 99% chance, your logo will be almost impossible to make out, and you will lose your avatar as an advantage.

• Write the addresses of your shops/studios, current discounts, calls to action and a link to the site/taplink in the header.
• Alternate product photos from different angles and plans.
• Avoid foreign objects in the photo, unless they "enhance" your product.

The author of personal blog must be recognized, so we put 100% of our face on the ava in close-up, maximum waist-deep.

• In the profile header, write what you can interest the audience, why it is worth subscribing to you.
• Keep the design of the ribbon natural. Fill it with bright "live" images. Avoid the same type and fuzzy photos. Photos should convey emotions and attract to the reading of the post.

For the blog of the expert, it is appropriate to use both a personal photo and a photo of the result of your service. A copywriter, for example, cannot show a photo of his service, just like a psychologist. Therefore, for such experts, a personal photo is the best option. Again, close-up or to the waist. A photographer can post a personal photo with a camera, a confectioner can post mouth-watering buns or cakes.

• The header should hook a person from the first words, so place the most important thing in it: the key phrase in the name, USP and call to action.
• The visual should be combined with each other both in color and in content.
• To make it easier to navigate your blog, you can place post titles on photos. This will allow the person to immediately understand what the post is about, or find the right one in your feed.

Install applications

This item may seem strange, they say, why install applications when there is an insta. The built-in tools are not enough to schedule the tape, do the necessary processing, and even more so glue the video. I have compiled key Instagram apps that make it easy for me to work with content.

The Preview application

Preview allows you to schedule a tape and get the same profile "in the same style." For basic tasks, the free version will be enough for you.

The app has a clean interface, photo editing tools and a font pack that you can use in your posts or bio. With Preview, you can create a grid layout, rearrange photos, and get the best version of your feed.

The app also has a post planner and analytics tools, but I don't use them. Internal analytics from Instagram is enough for me, and if necessary, I schedule posts for free through delayed posting on the Facebook website.

Photo editors

I'll tell you how to process photos easily and simply, what editors to use to get beautiful photos and likes:

Lightroom is a cool visual photo editor. You can find many presets that make works of art from ordinary photos. Here you can change the saturation, brightness and hue separately for each color. It is convenient to crop the photo and change the contrast. The free version is enough to work.

Snapseed - basic editor. It differs, perhaps, in speed. Very fast loading, exporting images. Suitable for removing unwanted objects in the photo, quick color correction and cropping. The application is also free, with an intuitive interface.

PS Express - where without it. Photoshop is the father of all photo editors. Also free. In it I use only the “Restore” tool to delete objects. Photoshop does it best, I recommend it.

Video editors

Some blogs consist entirely of video posts. And now that Instagram has rolled out Reels, you absolutely need a video editor to keep up. I use it myself:

InShot is an excellent mobile editor, many people know it by its watermark. In it, you can glue a clip from several videos, trim where necessary, add music, text, change the speed of the video. All basic tools are free to use, but your videos will be watermarked. You can get rid of it by purchasing a subscription for 349₽/month, 1150 ₽/year or for 3290 ₽ forever. I take an annual subscription, because. videos are not the main content type in my account.

Videoleap is also a video editor, but I keep it only because of one useful difference. Here you can work with several tracks, as in a full-fledged editor. InShot loses in this regard, there is only one track and you cannot overlay one layer on another.

iOS Basic Video Editor - 360-degree video rotation is now available after the latest update. It helps a lot if you suddenly took something at the wrong angle. Free, available by clicking the "Edit" button in the upper right corner.

Start writing posts

You figured out the type of blog and theme, installed everything you need, filled out the header, what's next? Tell the audience who you are and how you can be useful, write a post-acquaintance.

Maximum post length 2200 characters , but Instagrammers have long learned to bypass this limitation. There are two ways to publish something that does not fit in the post:

1. Text on the photo in the carousel . In addition to the first photo, you have 9 more slides in the carousel, where you can write what did not fit in the post. Do not forget to write in the post that the continuation can be read in the carousel.

2. Comment under post . Fewer people use this method, but it is still alive, so I will write about it. Each comment can contain up to 1000 characters, and if not less than this figure, write a comment. Don't forget to pin it so it's right below the post so people don't have to look for a sequel. To pin a comment, you'll have to post it as a different account.

For each type of publication, you can come up with and find a lot of topics for posts. Depending on the content and purpose, posts are distinguished:

Sellers . The purpose of such posts is to sell a product, product, service. These are posts where you directly encourage readers to buy something from you.

Information . Delivering information to the audience. This may be an up-to-date price list, information about a change of address or the opening of a new branch. We also include useful posts on the topic of the account.

Involving . Such posts are aimed at engaging existing subscribers to leave comments and communicate with you. Here you can discuss procedures and products, hold competitions.

Entertainment . Posts of good mood and increasing loyalty. Humor brings you closer to your readers. Entertainment content includes funny memes and videos, curiosities and polls.

Of course, in one post you can't reveal the topic of blog copywriting. Therefore, I give 7 rules for a good post for Instagram:

1. Write for your target audience . Use the same words, terms and slang. If you write for moms, then greet them: “Hello, mufflers!” at least indecent.
2. Make text different lengths . Write both short posts and long ones. There is no universal recipe here, test it.
3. Write the way you speak . Some people, sitting down to the text, for some reason, begin to fence complex constructions.
4. Follow logic . First, Anna Karenina fell in love and only then threw herself under the train. Not vice versa. ⠀
5. Follow structure . Attract attention with a headline (if you practice captions on pictures) or the beginning. Then talk about the benefits of the product and end with a call to action.
6. Divide text into paragraphs, spice it up with emoji .
7. Write every day . Regularity is the key to success in copywriting.

Post Stories and Reels

In Stories tell us about yourself, personal insights, how your work day went, share achievements. Emotional content brings the blogger closer to the audience. It is very important to publish stories daily so as not to get lost from the feed of subscribers.

Business accounts can post current promotions, new products, arrange interactive questions and answers about products or services. This will increase coverage and find out what is interesting to the target audience.

I advise the owners of personal blog to have more live communication: polls, voting, situations from everyday life, breaking news.

Blogger-expert can share the results of work or achievements of students in stories. Show subscribers customer reviews, tool or product reviews. Arrange an interactive with a vote or a request to evaluate the result in a before / after style. Don't forget to show the personal on the blog, it has a good effect on the reach.

Reels is a new feature from Instagram and it is also an attempt to move TikTok. It appeared in the world in August 2020, and in Russia it was launched only at the end of June 2021. It is a short video for 15-60 seconds. They are displayed on a special tab and do not disappear after 24 hours, like stories. The main difference between rils and stories is that they are shown not only to your subscribers, but also to random people in the feed.

Track statistics

Statistics are needed to understand what the audience is interested in and to properly promote your blog.

I'll note right away that statistics are available only for business accounts and author profiles. To transfer an account to a business account, you need to connect statistics to Instagram. In it, you can see the age of the audience, their gender, location, periods of greatest activity by day of the week and hour.

Pay attention to posts, stories and Reels that have received more reach, a lot of comments and likes. Analyze them and make similar content. Over time, you will find your recipe for fasting that will “get in”.

How to start promoting on Instagram

We have come to the final step in order to start attracting an audience on Instagram. Even the steepest profile will bend without advancing. So let's see what options we have.

Free promotion

The social network cuts this direction every year and it becomes more and more difficult to gain followers on Instagram for free.

Geotags . Indicate in the posts the places where your target audience is. For example, if you photograph newborns, you can use the geo-tags of antenatal clinics, perinatal centers, maternity hospitals.

Barter or Mutual PR (VP) . You advertise a blogger for free, he advertises you. Be sure to analyze the account with which you want to conduct the VP. Ask for statistics on stories, take a look at the percentage of likes and comments from the total number of subscriptions, it should be at least 6-10%. This method of promotion is appropriate if your blog has at least 1-2 thousand subscribers.

Hashtags . It's good, but you need to know how to use it. Don't even try to post high frequency hashtags like #fit , #girl , #work . They will only work if you are a Kardashian with a billion followers who will bring your post to the TOP of the recommended with their likes. For young blogs, there is a chance to get into the recommended ones only with low-frequency hashtags. For example, #website text or #slimming workout .

SFS . Post a useful or not very useful post with a call to talk about your blog in your profiles. In response, you talk on your blog about the people who supported your account.

This list used to have geo tags and hashtags for stories, but in 2021, Insta turned them off as well. Stories by geo-tagging are no longer available, which means that they cannot be used for promotion.

massliking and massfollowing never go away, but I have always been against this method. You can do it with your hands better than with the help of services, albeit longer.

But remember - there is always a risk of getting banned for using MF and ML, so think a thousand times whether you are ready to lose what you have been gaining.

Paid promotion

In the vastness of the network, you can still find articles in which there is the cherished phrase “... although Instagram does not have ads …”. Right now, you can buy placements in Posts, Stories, Reels, and IGTV only in Facebook Ads. In addition, you can always buy ads from bloggers, bypassing the official advertising tools.

Targeted advertising

Target is a one-love for me. You can choose the goal of promotion: more visits to the profile, site or increase in the number of comments. Customize the audience: specify gender, age, location. Target will show your posts or stories exactly to those who could potentially become your client. Or it will remind people about you who have already visited your profile, saved posts, but for some reason did not subscribe.

Advertising with bloggers

A great way to increase the audience of your blog is to buy ads from bloggers. Choose to start microblogs with a small number of subscribers. The audience of such accounts is quite involved, and you can get more return on advertising in such a profile.

You can use popular exchanges like Sociate, but I recommend always looking for handles and contacting blog owners directly for advertising.

In addition, you can buy advertising in the public. But here you need to analyze well and choose sites. See to it that the audience is alive and active.

What is forbidden to post on Instagram?

It is forbidden to post nude photos, posts that incite conflicts on religious, political or social topics on Instagram. Plagiarism is not allowed - the social network is against content theft. For spamming in Direct and spamming comments, you may be subject to a permanent account ban.

Also, the service may consider publication of several posts on the same day as doubtful:

• New profiles 2-4 weeks old can publish no more than 3 posts per day .
• Profiles over 6 months old can post up to 25 posts per day .

Instagram reacts sharply to any mass action. Numerous identical hashtags, comments and direct messages are perceived as spam. Endless likes, subscriptions, unsubscribes make the page activity suspicious. For various violations, insta can ban you for several hours, days, months, and even forever.

Conclusion

Now you know everything to start blogging on Instagram. This social network is a goldmine for business and self-expression. I hope you understand the algorithm of actions and this article will really help you in maintaining a profile.

And do not forget that in order to develop an account, it is not enough to read some information. The main thing is to put it into practice.

Questions?

Questions and answers

How to manage a group on Instagram?

Group - this is the same blog that is dedicated to a specific topic. For example, a city, a museum, poetry, a football club. Choose a name that reflects the content of the group. Publish thematic posts that engage the audience.

What topics are relevant on Instagram?

People are interested in content that can be useful in everyday life. The topics of proper nutrition, self-care, emotional state and self-development are relevant. Publications about fitness and sports, travel and earnings on the Internet are in great demand.

Save it so you don't lose it:

How to manage Instagram: make your account successful

Instagram has evolved from a social network where people share news and food photos to a blogging platform. The audience is used to quality content, and the competition is high: you compete with users from all over the world, because photos do not care about language or geographic location, and professional models, photographers, makeup artists and artists also actively use the social network. Of course, many do not know how to manage Instagram so that it develops and generates income.

But everyone has a chance to find their audience. Both schoolgirls from small towns and big brands with interesting content are becoming popular on Instagram. We figure out how to come up with a concept, take photos, write posts and maintain an Instagram account so as not to sink to the bottom of the algorithmic feed, but to find subscribers.

How to Instagram

Instagram is not just your page on a social network. Of course, no one will forbid sharing news with friends, we are talking about blogging on Instagram for a person or business, which will be of interest not only to your loved ones, but also to strangers.

Look at the pages of stars: they rarely combine photos with each other and generally bother with content, but fans are interested in any news from the life of idols. If you do not have a couple of million fans, you will not be forgiven for low-quality and uninteresting photos.

Start with an idea. Even if it’s hard to decide, and “taking pictures of everything that surrounds me” seems like the best way out, focus on a specific topic. Culinary blogs, profiles about proper nutrition, about dancing, about clothes, make-up - yes, Instagram already has it all. But you will do it your way. And people don't collect a list of subscriptions based on the principle "I already subscribed to a food blog, so I don't need another one."

Of course, if your idea is interesting and relatively new, it will be easier to move forward. But if you don't find one, don't give up. Maintaining Instagram is constant experimentation and finding a balance in content and interaction with the audience.

How to be in business? You need a concept too. Remember the character of the brand, decide on the tone of voice. Create value for subscribers: talk about topics related to your product. Consider that SMM from 2010, when beauty salons could post "10 hairstyle ideas" and get thousands of likes, is in the past. People won't subscribe to something they can google. Create authoring content: create a branded character or choose your storytelling style and list of topics you can cover.

Instagram profile design

At first glance, your account should be clear what it is about. Briefly formulate the topic of the blog in the bio and tell us about yourself. Typically, users enter their first name, age, and city.

How to get a business account to start Instagram?

The company account must contain contacts, information about the work of offline points and detailed conditions for ordering or recording. If you are unable to fit all the necessary information in your bio, you can use the multilink service.

Use emoji to highlight different information blocks in your bio. It is not necessary to choose bright and intrusive ones: dots, arrows, squares will look neat, but everyone will visually separate the text (name and topic of the blog) in meaning.

How beautiful to lead Instagram

There is an unspoken rule: profile photos must match. Open the pages of bloggers again: you will surely notice that the pictures standing next to each other were taken in the same tone or overlapped with each other in vivid detail.

A Facebook study showed that users spend 0.2 seconds per post on the mobile feed. Therefore, your posts should be visually cool and catchy at first sight. Let's figure out how to manage Instagram to be qualitatively different from others.

Photos must be of high quality, interesting and well processed. Instagram has its own trends - just try to bring photos processed in the Retrica app to your audience.

Follow Audience Members to find the visual style for your profile. See what content they post, what profiles they follow.

It is not necessary to use professional equipment, but you will definitely have to learn how to photograph and process images. See the photos you like, save them, don't be afraid to repeat, you're unlikely to be seen through, but you'll get your hands on it.

Layouts - a separate big topic. Think this is a joke? Try to create something similar yourself. You will find that you don't have many items that match. And those that exist cannot be organically placed in the frame.

To make high-quality layouts, bloggers buy accessories (candles, sparkles, postcards, fruits, garlands, frames, flowers) and spend a lot of time on them.

How to blog on Instagram

In 2017, a new trend appeared on the social network: users are interested not only in photos, but also in texts. Thematic blogs have appeared that talk about proper nutrition, makeup, motivation, parenting, or just about your life. And judging by the number of subscribers on such accounts and interactions under publications, users are ready to consume not only visual content in contact, but also read texts, even long ones.

Therefore, the desire to create and maintain an Instagram blog may be a good idea. But first, how to lead it? As with the concept of an account, a blog also needs one. Define a list of topics you write about, designate them in the profile header.

Follow the pages of users whose content you like. Pay attention to how often they publish posts, at what time they do it. How the audience is asked questions in posts, and what topics the audience is discussing more actively.

Instagram post contains up to 2200 characters. If your text does not fit in this size, move the part to the first comment, this is a common practice among bloggers. The problem will arise if there are too many discussions: then users will have to get to the first comment in the topic for a long time. Therefore, it is better to shorten the texts or split the story into several posts, publishing them under one hashtag.

How to broadcast on Instagram

Anyone can broadcast on Instagram. After the end, it will be available, like stories, 24 hours.

To start the broadcast, go to the news feed, click on your profile picture (just like when creating Stories). Select the option "Live" in the horizontal menu below. Now by clicking "Start" you will be able to broadcast live on Instagram.

How to attract an audience to a live broadcast?

Warn your subscribers about the broadcast in advance: make an announcement in a post or story. Pick a time when your audience is online. To do this, analyze the social network account in Popsters. On the chart "Activity / Days of the week" and "Activity / Time of day" you will find the most successful days and times for live broadcasts.

Wait for a larger audience, don't jump straight into the main topic of the broadcast. But at the same time, you can’t lose the audience who have already arrived: figure out in advance what will take the waiting time. Tell stories about the topic of the broadcast or arrange an interactive one: answer subscribers' questions or, conversely, ask them about something.

How to start Instagram?

Keep step-by-step instructions for maintaining an Instagram account:

1. Decide on a topic if you're blogging.
2. Find a photo style and processing style that you will follow.
3. Follow competitor accounts and profiles you want to be like.
4. Fill out your profile: choose a bright avatar, write in the "Bio" section about yourself and the topic of your blog.

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