How To Create A Free Blog On WordPress
LSA knows that many of its students are primarily focused on fine tuning their DJ skills rather than becoming bloggers but if you want any kind of success at all as a DJ maintaining a personal blog is an absolutely must. It’s the best way of getting your name out there, it helps you build a fan base and it shows that you are serious. A blog is just another name for your own website, one that you add content to regularly.
If you want your blog to attract an audience it is important that you do it in the right way. Building a successful blog has become rather advanced in recent years. There is so much information out there on the web that advise a variety of ways on how to manage a successful blog it can be hard to find the best advice for you.
LSA has written HOW TO CREATE A FREE BLOG ON WORDPRESS to help DJs start a blog in 6 straightforward steps, without confusing the process with complicated SEO (search engine optimisation) stuff. In truth, if you write about trending subjects you are genuinely passionate about, add links to helpful LSA posts and include visual content like videos and GIFs and if you make sure you build a consistent routine around writing and posting you’ll naturally attract an online audience without having to learn complicated SEO.
So here are the steps
1. CHOOSING A PLATFORM; WordPress is by far one of the biggest blogging platforms in the world, with countless ways to design and layout your blog it leads the way for all blogging platforms.
2. DESIGNING YOUR BLOG; WordPress allows you to choose different template designs for your blog called themes and if you grow tired of how your blog looks you can easily change the theme with just a few clicks, without losing any precious content or images. The best themes are the ones that look and function equally well on a desktop screen as they do on a mobile screen. Your blog’s design should reflect both you and your brand and be user-friendly. Choose something that looks professional, uncluttered, navigates easily and is easy for you to customise. https://wordpress.com/themes visit this link and search for themes under DJ, Music, Blog etc. Choose a theme that suits your needs and allows you to link to your existing social media such as facebook or soundcloud.
3. ADDING PLUGINS; A plugin is basically just a small code program that adds extra functionality to your theme. If you have a need for something that your theme doesn’t provide, there will be a plugin for it. The more plugins you add the slower your blog will load. This is why its important to choose the best theme for your blog. You should only have 6 or so plugins if you wish your blog to load fast. Basically your theme should provide you with all the fundamental functions that allow visitors to see and hear what you are all about and link to all your social media. Your Plugins can then do all the extra jobs you theme doesn't provide like help you monitor basic SEO and optimise your visual content. Different themes require different plugins and because there are so many to choose from LSA has researched and identified which of them perform the best. We recommend the following plugins; Comet Cache, GIF Animation Preview, AddToAny Share Buttons, All In One SEO Pack, WP Smush and Feed Them Social.
4. POSTS, PAGES & CONTENT; Content is king. Without well-written and engaging content, your blog isn’t going to build an audience. Think of your blog as a live autobiography, like a scrapbook of all your thoughts and actions over time that your fans can visit to discover more about you and catch up with what you’ve been doing. Posts are published with time and date in mind and listed in reverse chronological order on your blog’s home page. They can be about anything you are doing or anything you have taken an interest in and will make up the majority of your site’s content. Posts encourage conversation. They have a built-in commenting feature that allows users to comment on the content. Pages are used to communicate the core content about your blog that requires no response from your visitors. Such as your about page, contact details, bio, events page etc and can be displayed in a menu so they are easy to access no matter which post you happen to be reading.
5. CREATING QUALITY CONTENT WITH LINKS TO LSA POSTS; Creating quality content can encompass anything from teaching your visitors something useful to providing entertainment. While blogging about yourself can have its benefits, you should always be focusing on trending subjects whilst solving the visitor’s problems with helpful advice. Satisfying their needs is what will drive readers to explore more of your blog and return to your blog again and again. LSA blog posts are filled with helpful guides and advice and you can use our posts to add to your posts by creating clickable links within your content. This allows you to write about things more creatively without having to worry about writing detailed guides or solving a problem. For example you could write a post about your experience playing an amazing set in Ibiza and within the content of your post add a clickable link to LSA’s post How to get big DJ gigs on the island of Ibiza. You get to promote yourself whilst at the same time helping your visitor’s access useful advice on how they can get to experience what you did for themselves. What readers really want is a collection of related and helpful posts on the same topic to help solve a problem or question. If you have video, GIFs, infographics and other visual content be sure to include it. If you don’t you can search for relevant video or visual content in LSA’s blog and link or embed it in your post. Linking to relevant LSA blog posts will offer your visitors more in-depth information on the topic or a related subject that they can use to help themselves. LSA has also created a super easy step-by-step visual tutorial to help you create your own professional animated GIFs to help your blog become a success. [MAKE FREE ANIMATED GIFS]
6. USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENCOURAGE CONVERSATION; Be sure to share your post across all your social media. Once you have written a great post make sure you share it with as many people as possible. Encourage conversation by including a question that entices a response from the reader. Different social media platforms have different days and times where sharing a post can get maximum exposure so be sure to share you post at the best possible time.
By combining LSA quality content with your own and following these 6 simple steps you will be getting the best possible start for building a highly successful blog.
Are you passionate about music? Discover a new musical talent by learning how to DJ or produce music. Or if you already have some experience behind the decks, why not build upon and refine your existing DJ skills. Are you looking for a unique gift experience for a music obsessed friend? Take a look at our range of intermediate and advanced DJ courses. We offer 1 to 1 tuition for all experience levels and music genres? Our students learn faster, gain more success and regularly secure gigs at Ministry of Sound, Egg and Electric Brixton and our Music Production students have been signed to Spinnin, Universal and Island Records! This is probably why London Sound Academy has been rated the best DJ and Music Production school in London since 2010.
