Do I still need to blog manually? Can I automate the blogging process? These are the questions that come to the mind of every new or A-listed blogger. No matter if you have tried AI or not, the idea of using AI to do everything seems attractive. Less effort, more work.
But this is where everything gets wrong.
Using AI for scraping content or scaled content generation is against Google's policies.
It is also because the AI lacks human intent; it does not understand your readers, and its content always feels like machine-generated. To satisfy the users on your blog, you need emotional, energetic, fact-based, and user-friendly content.
While many argue that they can generate it using some prompt, Google knows when you do it.
And at the same time, your audience will also feel the missing elements when they read machine-generated content.
This is one of the many reasons why I always advocate that one should not use AI for content production. But it doesn't mean that AI is all bad. It is good as long as you use it for research purposes.
Now, you may have the question: if I should not use AI to generate content, then how do I blog in the AI era?
This is what I am going to answer here.
How to Blog in the AI Era:
Blogging in the AI era, where every single person is running after AI tools, large language models, and every single piece of advice that can make the process fast, it seems difficult to ignore the AI.
I am not blaming you for falling in love with AI tools, but it is also because of the influencers who are making wild promises that this AI tool can change your blogging or AI content can rank way better.
It is better to learn from Google than any influencers who claim that they have found the way to rank AI content in search.
To keep things simple, I am helping you find your way to blogging in the AI era without misleading you on your journey to become a professional blogger.
In blogging you need a few things before you ever plan to launch a blog. And here they are.
Niche:
Niche selection is one of the most common issues where many bloggers fail. It is also the first step that decides the success of your blogging journey.
You cannot just type "Which niche is best" in an AI tool and expect that you can deliver the best content to the target audience.
Niche selection should always be on the basis of what makes you feel amazing, what your passion is, what things you love to talk about, and what topics make you look for more information, and you do all this with passion.
For example, technology is a massive niche. You may have passion for iPhones, but you are not interested in Android. In this case, choosing a niche where you must cover Android articles will not only ruin your interest but also the interest of readers. If you do not know or are confused about multi-niches, then start with micro-niches. Only create a blog about the iPhone.
It is always best that you choose a niche based on your interest.
Note: Every niche is monetizable. So if you are choosing a niche because it has a wider audience but you have no passion for it, then your blogging journey will end before it even hits a valuable mark.
Domain Name:
One, two, or three-letter domain names with a .com extension are mostly not available or cost more than a million. It is best to choose a domain name that is related to the niche. For example, if you want to start an iPhone blog, you can choose something like (yourname)iphonetips.com.
If you do not want to use your name, then you can also use a word related to technology.
When choosing a domain name, you can take the help of AI, but make sure you check every domain name for availability and readability.
Here are the tips that you must follow when choosing a domain name:
- Easy to read: Make sure that the domain name you choose is easy to read; avoid hyphens and special characters. Do not use slang or missing words. If your blog is in English, then choose the words in the domain name that represent the right English words.
- Memorable: Make your domain name memorable for readers. For example, choose a domain name such as "Myguidetoiphones" with a .com extension. Make sure that your readers are not getting confused when typing your domain name.
WordPress:
You need a CMS to launch your blog. WordPress is the best and most user-friendly platform to launch a personal or professional blog. It offers everything from themes, plugins, customization, SEO, and controls.
43.3% of all websites are running on WordPress. There are 85,225,560 websites that are using the WordPress CMS.
WordPress is highly popular because it offers complete customization and control over your content.
When choosing WordPress, always go for self-hosted service.
To host your website on WordPress, you need a web hosting provider. You can buy web hosting from WordPress or other hosting services.
Web Hosting:
Web hosting is one of the crucial aspects of successful blogging. You need a reliable web host that can handle traffic, offer bandwidth, load websites faster, and offer support.
When choosing a web hosting service, BlueHost, HostGator, Hostinger, GoDaddy, Ionos, GreenGeeks, InMotion, and SiteGround are the popular and reliable choices.
Premium Theme:
Now, you want to host your blog on WordPress with a paid hosting plan, but you also need to make it look great for your audience.
To ensure that your website does not break when loading and offer every important piece of information faster, you need to choose a premium WordPress theme.
You can ask AI for premium WordPress theme suggestions.
Themeforest, TemplateTrip, Divi Marketplace, Elegant Themes, and StudioPress are some of the most popular premium theme sellers.
You can buy a premium WordPress blog theme from $5 to $100.
Once you have a niche, hosting, and theme, your blog is ready. But now, you need content.
Content:
There are two major content types that every blog must have.
- Important Pages: Pages are important as they display crucial information about your blog, such as About Us, Contact Us, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Sitemap, and Affiliate Disclosure.
- Posts: Posts are the content that you regularly publish on your blog related to your niche and topics.
You may think of writing these pages using an AI writer, but this is a mistake. AI will only give you generic page content that lacks information about you, your blog, and what you will be doing.
It is better to check the important pages of top blogs in your niche or your competitors.
This will give you enough inspiration to write your important pages in your style with the information related to your blog, content, and audience expectations.
Blog Post:
Writing your first blog post is one of the very first steps to your blogging journey as a content writer.
You need to research the niche, make a collection of at least 10 topics, choose the main topic, and write the first article about it.
When writing your first article, make sure that you add your experience, expertise, and how your content will help your audience.
Note: There is a blog on every niche. Your blog will only stand out when you use your own tone and voice.
You may want to use AI to produce content faster, but I recommend you learn from your competitors and choose the manual path as long as you are building authority.
Conclusion:
It is easy to start a blog in the AI era. But relying too much on AI can cause failure. You should not generate content using AI tools. Rather, focus on research to improve your knowledge and write what is important for your audience.
If you still have any questions, feel free to ask me.
