A blog represents your online space where you can share your thoughts and ideas, as well as show your intellectual capabilities. Over the last decade, blogs have become extremely popular, mostly thanks to the fact that bloggers can now make more money from their passion for writing on different topics, and thanks to the general development of technology because you can create them easily. Thanks to blogs, students can learn more and share ideas with both students and readers alike.
When we speak about student blogs, it is important to mention that most of them are academically oriented since it is the best way to expand and cash in the knowledge students get on their college courses. Of course, besides this, you can find many personal blogs, as students also tend to write about topics of their interest like sports, cars, fashion, cooking, etc. There are plenty of benefits one student can get from blogging, and they are not only those of financial nature.
Blogging helps you improve your written communication, analytical skills, and interpretation abilities, which are important in your overall career development. It’s an ocean full of possibilities that wait for the start of your journey. And speaking of starting a blog, you are probably aware by now that it is not always easy to begin with, and every beginning is in many ways challenging.
Every beginning is rough, and people often lose the will for something if they experience confusion and difficulties. That is why in this article, we will give you some advice on what to do and how to begin blogging as a student.
Choose the right topic(s) for your blog
Even though this advice seems like a basic one, choosing the right topic of your interest for your blog isn’t as simple as it seems. First of all, it needs to be something you actively wish to write about or discuss. Think of something you are most passionate about. No matter the relation to your college degree.
Once you start blogging, you have to show yourself in the best light, and you can only do that by choosing topics you are interested in. Everyone wants to avoid a situation where you will quickly stop writing blog posts, or the quality of your texts will go down significantly. A student blog needs to be fun and educational. That’s what attracts the reader. The right topic and passion.
So, take a break, take your time to think about what topics you’re genuinely interested in and enthusiastic about. That is the first step towards a successful student blog.
Start with free platforms and webpage builders
Student life can be complicated in terms of finances, and you probably want to avoid as many costs as possible. That is why we recommend free options and platforms like WordPress and Wix. WordPress is the most famous and widely used platform and website builder. It perfect for starting out. Thanks to WordPress, your blog will become a professional and good-looking place for all of your readers and visitors. Or if you have budget and want a professional blog then you can hire dedicated WordPress developers. Additionally, investing in an applicant tracking system can help automate this process.
With WordPress, you will create your site easily without any advanced technical knowledge. And you can do it very fast at that. Plus, most importantly, you will get free hosting for your site, your domain, a world-class support team, and many more awesome features. You also get a ton of great plugins within WordPress that will enrich your blog further. Wix is another platform that offers many great services, many of which are cloud-based.
Their website builder is a truly amazing one, and most importantly, it is built on the freemium business model, which again means a free start for your blogging career. These free platforms are everything you need to create your first student blog and start your journey properly.
Use free courses
Once you decided to enter the blogging world, and after you pick topics you want to cover in your blogs, it is time to get professional help. Thanks to the many awesome online courses at your disposal, it’s easy to do so. This part of the article will show you one truly amazing learning site that will support you to start your blogging career well.
The course is called Age of Online Empires, and it offers you 7 unique courses designed specifically to help you develop your business from an idea to concrete results.
These courses are covering different themes, from blogging, webinars, online businesses, and many more. These courses are very good for self-starters like you who are completely new in this dynamic digital world, which can often be very confusing. It will prepare you for all potential issues you could experience at the start of your journey. It will help you develop your business ideas, and most importantly, you will get an opportunity to test potential audiences, what you need to change, add, or improve.
Once you discover your entrepreneurial side and combine it with your passion for writing and blogging, you will have more chances to make financial gains and take your blog to the next level.
Use tools to improve your text quality and correct writing mistakes
Once you start your blog, you’ll have to take care of text quality and grammatical mistakes. If you want to write a blog post like a true professional, you might need help from some online tools. The most famous tool for checking grammar and plagiarism is, without any doubt, Grammarly.
This tool is very effective and easy to use. It will improve your writing skills significantly. With Grammarly, your writing will be free of all mistakes, you will get additional feedback, and besides blogs, you can use it to write an e-mail, messages, and other important documents. It is constantly updated and very easy to integrate with your browser. Grammarly has both free and premium versions with different options depending on your budget and the amount of help you need with your writing.
We do have to mention that the free version will probably be alright initially, and you can start using the premium version as your blog starts to grow more and more. Of course, it is important to mention some free alternatives to Grammarly like ProWritingAid, WhiteSmokeater, and Scribendi.
These alternatives are also supplied with all important options, and no matter which tool you pick, it will improve your writing and blog content, sparing you from all grammatical mistakes and typos.
Constantly update and improve your website with plugins, add-ons, and tools
You finally started your blog, and you’ve probably noticed how things change quickly and how frustrating it can be when you have to deal with updates, security, and your webpage rankings. It means that to succeed, you will have to improve your site constantly, with many updates and plugins.
Your webpage needs to look professional and visually appealing all the time, and you will have to protect your webpage from hackers and malware. You’ll also need to improve your SEO rankings and visitor experience.
There is so much work for you in this process, but thankfully there is also a lot of help from AI that you can get in the form of many plugins and tools. If you use WordPress, then you will quickly start to integrate many plugins onto your site. You will find many useful plugins as time goes, but we will mention a few really useful ones for bloggers and beginners.
Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode
The Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode plugin helps you to set up a coming soon page, maintenance mode page, landing page, and launch page for your website and blog. This plugin is very simple and flexible. It is compatible with any WordPress theme. It will help your blog to collect leads and many new subscribers.
Besides the free version, there is also a PRO version, just in case you need additional help.
WP Reset
WP Reset is another amazing tool created by WebFactory. It quickly resets the site’s database to the default installation values without modifying any files. This plugin speeds up testing and debugging by providing a quick way to reset settings and retest code.
The free version is great, but as you might expect, the PRO version expands on the features significantly.
301 Redirects
Another plugin that is perfect for new users and student bloggers is the 301 Redirects plugin. With this tool, you will be able to grow your site and improve SEO rankings. It is an easy-to-use, perfect tool for new sites or repairing links after reorganizing your existing webpage content.
The PRO version offers you even more awesome features and abilities for your blog improvements.
Conclusion
Having a successful student blog is easy to achieve, and it requires a lot of work. It is always good to keep some great pieces of advice in your mind while you are in the process of creating a blog. We hope that you’ve found our advice helpful and that you can finally turn your ideas into a successful student story.