Start A Beer Blog!
Good beer is a great thing. Sadly too many people stick with the mainstream. A beer blog is a great way to get others to open their mind to a better elixir. Let’s not forget about the other great fermented beverages like mead, cider and wine. They deserve a great blog as much as beer!
The first and most important point is that a beer blog will unlikely make you rich or famous. Blogging isn’t as popular these days but there are still tons of other blogs out there to take your spotlight. Not to mention the fact you are targeting a niche with heavy players with a lot of money. Advertising is also limited since it’s alcohol related so at most hope to maybe pay for operating costs or a beer or two. Depending on your niche you might get lucky and score a free beer or some homebrew equipment. Don’t do it for money do it for the love of the craft!
Hopefully I haven’t talked you out of making your beer blog already. Your first step should be picking a niche within the niche. Homebrewing, beer news, and reviews are all great routes to focus on. Each has its own benefits and hurdles but your main concern should be to pick what you are interested in. Like it or not your first stretch of posts will be like talking to a wall.
Your beer blog will run out of steam quickly if you pick the wrong niche!
Decide where and how you are going to curate your beer blog. Blogger or WordPress are great options if you want a more traditional blog. Blogger is fairly limited but is available free. WordPress has a free option but you’re better off going with a paid hosting to get its full potential.
Don’t forget about social media. Most social media platforms would serve perfectly fine for a beer blog. Do realize that each has a varying format so plan your blog accordingly. Make sure to create a social media presence even if you go with a traditional blog. Social media is an amazing source of traffic that only takes a minimal effort for big returns.
You’ll want to get a few articles hammered out now that you have picked your focus. Don’t struggle too much over being a bad writer. Your first few articles might suck but at least you’ll get something written on the wall. You can always rewrite things once you get better. It’s impossible to get anything done if you never start though.
Never ever copy content from another site even if it’s your own.
Keep an eye on blogs targeting a similar crowd that you are going for. Do write complementary and new articles that help your agenda. Don’t copy things that have already been done. You’ll be wasting your time and won’t boost your traffic. Never ever copy a blog entry or even alter it to be your own. Search engines will likely bury you far within the search results. Finally remember to be social on these blogs to earn some back traffic.
Your traffic will take some time but it will come as long as give people something to read. As for the first few people I’m really talking about the search engine crawlers. Keep writing on a consistent basis and the search engines will start to pick you up. Try to at least write something weekly or more frequent. The real people will come with persistence and a little luck!
You’ll want to hold people’s attention once the traffic starts flowing to your beer blog. Write interesting articles but also vary their format. You’ll want both long and short articles with short easy to follow paragraphs. Pictures are a must for giving your blog some life as well as giving the search engines some meat.
Be a good ambassador for great beer and the rest of the fermented goodness. The more people we get interested, the more variety we will have in the beer world. Don’t turn your blog into a job and remember to actually enjoy the beer!
As a final note I’d like to recommend my host, Siteground, if you plan on going with WordPress. They are easy to set up and have great support.
