BLOGGING 101: A guide for first time bloggers!

"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is not turned on."_{-Louis L'Amour}

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It was last week of November 2017 when @smaeunabs first introduced Steemit to me. And to be honest, I found it nice but not yet amazing. So I went on with my maniana habit for weeks!

Then one day, while I was doing my daily quantity tracking report, I noticed one of my co-engineer typing something. I did not mean to evade her privacy but I took a glimpse of what she was doing out of curiosity. Still sounds like envasion of privacy. hehehe Sorry, I just can't help it. To my surprise, @jonnahmatias1016 was actually making her introductory post. WOW! Right then and there I downloaded my interesting (based on my own opinion) photos from Facebook. My hands were literally shaking as I publish my introductory post.

I started my Steemit journey with @smaeunabs, @jonnahmatias, @jeromedeiparine and @ja9garnett -- civil engineers in our company. And now our small group has become a mini-community; more engineers from our company also joined the club namely: @danyopana12, @annjadeadubo, @jhoy, @aljoursantillan, @mjp, @mvalley13 and @cecilgee. Not just that, two of our lovely accounting staffs has already signed up, @ozellequiamco and @richelle. Awesome, right? My college friends have started blogging as well, @shaidca and @comradekent. Isn't that even more surprisingly amazing? hehehe But wait, there's more! Five more friends of mine are now VERY interested in joining this amazing platform! Now, that's astounding times ten to the power of square root of 100. LOL!

With the number of first time bloggers who have asked helped from me and @smaeunabs, I have decided to publish this blog to guide all newbies -- reasons why you should not start a blog and a few recommendations for your blog.

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_{Disclaimer: I am not a pro. The points given in this blog is based on my understanding and a few research to create a guide in order to help my workmates who are writing their blogs for the first time. If you find something erroneous, please consider commenting down below. I will greatly appreciate that.}

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Since Steemit is already offering a great platform, there is no need to create a new one. This, what we have now, is by so far the best! So let's focus on points you, as newbies, should be focusing on.

Why should you "not" start a blog?

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You've probably listed minimum of five reasons to start a blog and I'm pretty sure that is what you are thinking now, right? But what I'm about to give you are the NOTs!

• First, MONEY. If your primary objective is to replace your full-time income for blogging, forget about it. Like most of you, you signed up for the dollars and the thing about cryptocurrency that still bugs you right now. I completely understand that but you should know that income comes after writing something you love about or something worth sharing for and upvotes are just around the corner.

• Second, POPULARITY. You are no longer in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Youtube...you are in this amazing platform we call Steemit where everyone is given the fair opportunity to be noticed

In Philippines, I would like to thank @steemph, @steemph.cebu, @surpassinggoogle, @jassennessaj, @bayanihan, @themanualbot and many others, who continually strive for the betterment of this community!

• Third, TRAFFIC. This isn't the congestion we experienced in EDSA; I am referring to your readers. One piece of advice, Don't dream of having lots of followers! Would you rather have 10,000 Facebook friends or 10 real-life friends? That’s an easy one to answer for sure. That is what I meant of not dreaming about lots of followers; instead dream about having quality readers! Aim for engaged, enthusiastic, intelligent, interested, and returning readers. And in order to achieve that, make sure to be the kind of reader you wanted to have!

Blog recommendations

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I have been asked for advice about blog topics, how to create good content and even checking their grammar. Oh for goodness sake! I am not a pro. hahaha But despite of being considered a newbie myself, I have tried my best to extend my short arms to those in need. So now, I'm gonna give you 11 recommendations for your blog.

• FINDING YOUR NICHE. For sure each one of us has something we really are passionate about. May it be about online gaming, American/Thai or Korean series, travel/adventure, foodporn, cryptocurrency, science, politics, poetry, or health. When learning how to be a blogger, knowing what you want is a great way to help you start your blog.

• DEFINING YOUR IDEAL READERS. Knowing who will be reading your blog is an important key to writing good contents. Tailor your writing to your readers (whether it’s your family and friends or local community or workmates or whoever else will read your blog).

• ADDING VALUE. In order to get someone's long-term buy-in, you must add value to your reader's lives. This is the only way to gain quality readers and even to keep them coming back.

• BE ORIGINAL, INTERESTING, HONEST AND BE YOURSELF. You are not the only Lebron fan in the world, you're not the only travel blogger, you're not the only music enthusiast in your community. In short, there are a lot of blogs out there about the same thing you want to write about. What will make you stand-out is your perspective, creativity and the value you add. You are what makes your blog different from the rest.

• TIME. Blogging takes time and you have probably realized it now. hehehe Take time to read other people's blogs and learn from them. Take time to research for interesting topics. And most especially take time to edit your blogs -- proofread as many as you can!

• USE "WE" INSTEAD OF 'I". Think of it as the humblest thing you'll do to avoid annoying other readers. You need to accumulate good traffic, remember?

• SOCIAL MEDIA. Even though Steemit is already the best social media platform, you need Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Viber to connect more to other people and to increase your visibility. But, FOCUS on writing first, social media will follow.

• RESEARCH. Always strive to be the better of your yesterday's version. Research your desired topic in order to add value on your posts.

• INCLUDE PICTURES. Humans as we are, we sometimes get tired reading. Hence, pictures do the story telling.

• COMMENTS. Be grateful for the people who took the time to appreciate your posts.

• DON'T FORGET TO LIVE YOUR LIFE. If you've been blogging for quite some time now, some of you have already been hooked with the system. That's normal but keep in mind that you have a life outside the virtual world.

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I hope you learned something from my blog. If you haven't read my previous blogs, check it out here (1 2 3 4). Also, please do support the tagged authors in my blog. Thank you! Till next post everyone!

Let me just leave you with this quote,

"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit."_{-Richard Bach}

Lovelots,
@nikkabomb