7 Tips To Starting a New Health Blog
Looking to start a new health blog? The health category is vast and you can write about thousands of topics ranging from nutrition, supplements, fat loss, strength training to bodybuilding. There will obviously be a lot of thought and planning that’s going to go into creating your new blog. To help you get some clarity, here are some helpful pointers that can make the process easier.
Tip #1: Set Up Your Blog with Reliable Services
There are many things you’re going to need such as a domain name, web hosting, email marketing platform, and social media scheduling tools. While it may be tempting to go with free or cheap alternatives, you want to spend some money going with a reliable service if you plan on taking your blog seriously.
For instance, it may be helpful to go with a web hosting provider that specializes in hosting WordPress sites. You may even want to go with a provider that offers special features like a premium site builder themes or a reliable backup service. You’ll want an email marketing service that protects your domain from being blacklisted.
Tip #2: Focus on a Specific Topic
You may think that it’s a good idea to create a broad health blog, but it’s often better to focus on a specific topic. For example, there are many food blogs that do well focusing on the low carb and sugar free lifestyle. There are also many blogs that focus on the paleo diet which is a popular trend.
By targeting a health sub category, it’s easier to identify a target audience and appeal to this specific audience. Finding content topics becomes easier as well. You can research other blogs, forums, Facebook groups, and social media sites to get a strong idea of what’s really going to connect with you audience.
Tip #3: Research Your Audience’s Consumer Habits
At the end of the day, you need to figure out how to monetize your blog. This means you’ll have to look into joining various affiliate programs, creating your own products, or selling products using a dropshipper. Many people take the approach of trying different things to figure out what sticks.
What you want to do instead is to really research your audience’s consumer habits. See what supplements, exercise products, books, and information products members of your audience are buying. You can get insight into this buy browsing around eCommerce stores like Amazon, Clickbank, and Walmart.
Tip #4: Dip Deep into the Specifics for Outstanding Content
It’s easy to create decent content that scratches the surface, but you have to realize that there are so many health blogs out there that do the same thing. If you want to stand out, your content must really go into the specifics. For example, if you’re creating a blog for diabetic living, you need to know the small details such as the kind of medications the audience takes and conflicts it may have with certain supplements.
You want to get a general idea of the foods they are consuming on a regular basis, their exercise habits, and the differences between the two types of diabetes. This allows you to create content that is really specific to the audience. The last thing you want to do is waste time and energy creating another article about foods diabetics should avoid. The better option would be to write about recipes with sugar alternatives that do not spike blood sugar.
Tip #5: Engage Your Readers in Different Ways
While regular blog posts will consist of the majority of your posts, you need to go beyond that to really capture the attention of your audience. Here are just some of the many things you can do:
– Produce engaging YouTube videos.
– Set up audio interviews with experts in your health category.
– Create fun and helpful infographics to educate your audience.
– Upload helpful downloads like meal planning guides, exercise cheat sheets, resources, etc.
– Host live Q&A webinars to answer the most pressing questions about a topic.
The idea here is to do more with your content. Add value to your audience in different ways. Engage them differently so that you keep them on their toes and get them coming back.
#6: Create a Simple Marketing Plan You Can Execute
Just because you don’t have a big budget doesn’t mean you can’t market your blog. If you have the added challenge of not having experience with marketing, go out there and educate yourself. There are many digital marketing blogs, blogging guides, and other resources that can help you learn everything you need fairly quickly.
You should be able to come up with a simple marketing plan you can execute. This may be something simple like looking for related blogs you can exchange content with for more exposure. What’s important here is to come up with action steps that you’ll be performing on a regular basis rather than a single one-time tactic.
Tip 7: Create a Strong Lead Magnet
Most blogs you come across will ask their visitors to subscribe to their newsletter. However, the last thing that people want to do is to subscribe to something that’s going to clog up their inbox. That’s why you need to provide a strong incentive for your readers to follow your blog, subscribe to your email newsletter, and follow you on your social media channels.
A great way to get readers on your email newsletter in the first place is to create a strong magnet. Find something of value that you can give away like a special report. You need to make sure the special report is really specific to your audience’s needs/wants. If you’re looking to get more social media followers, you want to use the same idea and incentivize people to follow you.
These seven tips should help you create a health blog that’s set up for success. There are a lot of things you’ll want to do to grow your blog but it all starts with making sure you’ve set up a strong foundation.