To continue our month of trends, today’s article covers a hot topic in the industry right now: blogging. Blogging has arguably become 2017’s most popular trend. And why? For two main reasons: Everybody is online and everybody has something to say.

What started as a personal, online hobby through sites such as Tumblr has quickly turned into a must-do weekly/monthly tasks for companies all around the world. These days, whether you own a small mom-and-pop or a large, corporate chain, you need a great website and an active blog in order to stay on top of the competition. When it comes to these two things, there’s just no way around it in such a web-centric society.

But why exactly has blogging become so popular, you ask? Luckily for you, I’m going to give you a sort of quick but complete understanding of the importance of blogging. Hopefully, by the end of this article, you’ll have developed a newfound confidence and be able to blog your way through 2017 and straight into a successful 2018.

Why has blogging become so popular?

The answer to this question can’t actually be summed up in one statement. In fact, there are many different reasons why blogging has been so popular recently. Here are a few:

1. You can write about anything, anytime, and in any tone of voice. When it comes to blogging, there are no limits and no boundaries for what you can write about. At the end of the day, as long as your information is relevant and interesting to a growing audience, your blog is doing just fine.

2. Blogs are great places to provide case studies. Simply put, case studies are samples of previous work your company has done for clients. These online samples serve as an extremely valuable part of your online site. And where do they often live on the site? In the blogs, of course! Doing a case study for a blog post is a great way to keep your company’s followers updated with what’s new, while also showing potential clients examples of what you can do.

3. Blogs give professionals the opportunity to teach and consumers the opportunity to learn. What better way to keep an audience informed than to teach them something new about the industry? Blogs are the perfect outlet for passing information from one person to the next.

4. Blogs strengthen consumer loyalty. The main benefit here is the way consumers will react to the knowledge or entertainment they find in your blog. Consumers who stay actively interested in your blog are also staying actively involved with your brand. The more consumer-centric you make your blog, the more excited for new content they’ll become.

5. Blogging will keep your business growing. This is one of the most important reasons blogging has become such a widespread online trend over the past couple of years. Blogs are a great way to increase SEO (search engine optimization) and ultimately generate increased web traffic to your company’s main site. Higher click rates, increased word-of-mouth, and more sales leads are just a few possible outcomes of increasing your business’s SEO with consistent blog posts.

Want to know more about the ever-growing blogging trend of 2017? If so, you’re in luck! As a blogger myself, I’ve come up with a few short but sweet answers to common questions from non-blogging industry professionals. After all, what better way to spend the day than by learning something new?

What sites are best to use for blogging?

For both personal and professional blogging purposes, I have used and remained fond of WordPress. The site can be a little tricky to learn your way around at first, but ultimately gives you the best bang for— well, nothing. WordPress is free for new bloggers who don’t mind posting under the site’s domain name. If you’re interested in posting to an existing company website, however, it will cost you.

Other popular sites (that I’m admittedly less familiar with) are Squarespace, Wix, and Blogger— though that last one is best used for a more personal blogger than a professional one. All come with free versions, advanced analytics options, and in-house templates to make your online space your own.

How do I keep my audience interested?

This is a difficult question to answer because there are so many elements to a great blog. However, in my opinion, the best answer is this: write from the heart. Write about things that are relevant to your industry, that you know well enough to explain, and that you can describe passionately. If you care about the content your creating, your audience will pick up on that. And if not, they’ll pick up on that too.

Also, avoid sloppiness when it comes to grammar, spelling, and spacing errors. If it immediately looks like you didn’t care enough to read your own finished product, your audience definitely won’t want to either.

How long should my blogs be?

A good blog post averages between 300-1,000 words.

How do I find good, free images for my blog?

Well, first there’s the obvious answer… you can take your own photos. But, if you’re not great behind the camera— or if you’re like me and you don’t have the necessary equipment— other options are available.

Three great sites for finding free stock photos are Pixabay, Unsplash, and Pexels.

Any extra visual content, such as infographics, banners, or videos, should be created by someone on your design team. If you don’t have a design team, consider a freelance graphic designer for the job. They’re fairly cheap and it’s well worth it to have original content for your readers.

That’s it for today, but be sure to stay tuned as next week’s article finishes our month of trends.

As always, thanks for reading and happy marketing!

—Amanda Myers, Copywriter at BoydTech Design, Inc.