Blogging in Nepal can be both a hobby or a profession. Before learning about how to become a top blogger in Nepal, let’s find out what is a blog and how many types of blogs are there. A blog is a special type of website that contains online journals or informational articles. Articles entries, also called posts, are displayed in reverse chronological order, meaning the latest content is shown first. A person who regularly creates and posts blogs is called a Blogger. Blogs can be as simple as personal diaries or cover complex topics like science or politics.
Irrespective of the topic covered, the content of a blog always follows a well-defined pattern. All Blogs have text, digital images, links to other blogs, etc. Due to this blogs usually have a long content.
When people post small content then it is called microblogging. The trend of microblogging is becoming popular nowadays with the rise of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Through social media, people can express their views in short sentences and deliver information through images, videos, or text. So, in a sense, people can maintain blogs through social media platforms. Apart from Facebook and Twitter, some popular platforms include Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, WordPress, Dribbble, etc.
John Barger coined the term ‘weblog’ on December 17, 1997. The term we use today as ‘blog’ was coined by Peter Merhloz, who broke the word weblog into ‘we’ and ‘blog’ in 1999. Today, the word ‘blog’ can be used as both a noun and a verb.
The culture of blogging arose in the 1990s with the development of content publishing websites. A person wishing to write blogs needs to have knowledge about HTML and PHP. It was the same for many years.
With the web 2.0 version, after the 2010s, most websites allow comments on their blogs, thus increasing interactivity between bloggers and their audiences. It helped in creating social relationships. However, there are still many blogs where comments sections are turned off or non-existent. Even when there are comments enabled, blog authors or moderators can filter out and delete inappropriate comments, hate speeches, or offensive comments.
In the context of Nepal, there was a blogging trend in the late 2000s. When people knew that through Google Ads they could earn money in dollars, many blogging sites were popping right and left. Most of these trend-followers were active on blogger, a website dedicated to creating and posting blogs.
Today, there are many active bloggers in Nepal. Most of them have moved from the platform, Blogger, to their own domain. The easy availability of .com.np domain has contributed to this rising trend. The top website based bloggers of Nepal include the name of Lex Limbu (lexlimbu.com) and Shalokya (mysansar.com). Most Nepalese bloggers are active on video platforms like YouTube. Most of the bloggers in Youtube cover politics and social causes and create clickbait kinds of headlines. Their main interest is to earn money through Google Adsense rather than creating great content. However, there are few good youtube vloggers too. Sisan Baniya, Chetan Vlog, Ghumante, Nepal 8th wonders are few important names in Nepali Youtube Vlogging.
There are different types of blogs. Based on persons involved, we can categorize blogs into the following types:
Personal blogs are online diaries that are written by a single person. Most of them have very few readers, mostly their family and friends. Very few personal blogs have reached the point where they are earning substantial income through advertisements or sponsorship deals.
Collaborative blogs are a type of blog that is written by multiple people. Sometimes collaborative blogs are also referred to as Group blogs. Though written by multiple people, collaborative blogs have a single uniting theme such as politics, technology, sports, music, advocacy, etc. Collaborative blogs have high readers as compared to personal blogs.
According to Wikipedia, Microblogging is the practice of posting small pieces of digital content – which could be text, pictures, links, short videos, or other media – on the internet. Microblogging is becoming more and more popular nowadays due to its small content. Small content is easy to read on the go or when waiting. Microblogging helps in connecting with friends, office-goers can organize office meetings or share useful resources, celebrities can microblog about release dates, tour dates, etc. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc are good examples of microblogging.
When blogs are written by a corporation or governmental or non-governmental organization then it is called corporate blogs. Corporate blogs can be both private or public.
Private corporate blogs are meant to be circulated within corporation employees only. These types of blogs are only available to some readers, mostly employees of an organization or a company. The main motive of this type of blog is to enhance communication & engagement between the employees.
Public corporate blogs are meant for customers. It is created to announce product launches, offers, news, and events.
Aggregate blogs are a selected feed on a particular topic, product, or service and provide a combined view for its readers. It helps in saving the time spent on searching for quality content for readers and helps them to focus on reading.
Other than the above-mentioned types of blogs, blogs can be further divided into by genre, by media type, and by device type.
Based on genre, blogs can cover a particular category like politics, health, travel, journalism, fashion, food, art, culture, etc. Based on the media type, blogs can be video blogs (vlog), photoblog, media blogs, etc. Based on device type, blogs can be made particularly for mobile devices.
Blogging can be both a hobby and a profession.
When the person is not seeking any monetary gains from his blog, then that person is blogging purely as a hobby. This person can be a well-known person in his/her industry so people read their blog regularly.
When the blogger gets monetary gain from his/her work then it can be regarded as a profession. This person may or may not have other income-generating sources. Blogging has been consistently included as the best passive income idea in Nepal and around the world. The person wishing to be a blogger can start a blogging career from a small capital. Blogging is one of the best small business ideas in Nepal and similar is the case for the people living abroad.
Though blogging can be started with a small amount, it requires tremendous hours of work in making good content. Well researched and beautifully crafted blogs are sure to generate lots of views.
The main thing you need for a blog is content. And how do you get good content for your blog? by writing it. Writing should be a habit for you. You should be writing every day. Even if you are busy, try writing just a paragraph. The more you practice, the better you get.
When you start writing, you can write about anything you like. After developing writing as a habit, try finding a topic that you think you know better. Having a topic to focus on helps you streamline your content, develops an interlinking between your post thus increasing your SEO points.
When you have a topic to write on check what others are writing about it. Look out for keywords that are being used. Find out what you can include more to make your post more informative than your competition. If your topic has less competition meaning only a few have written about it, then you have little to no competition in your blog topic.
While writing a blog post you want to make sure your blog post contains as much information as possible. It is a good thing to do. However, there is a problem. People tend to skim content while reading so your hard work may just be overlooked. One way to minimize this is to make your paragraph smaller. Try to include only 5 to 6 sentences in a paragraph.
List and bullet points concept is similar to the paragraphs above. Making your content divided into smaller parts will make your content more visually pleasing to read.
Inbound and outbound links are for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes. Inbound links are the links from other websites that point to your website. Inbound links are also known as backlinks. The more inbound links your website has the more will be the ranking factor meaning your website will get higher ranking in search engines. Outbound links are the links that your website points to other websites. You may think that pointing your hard-earned visitors from your site to similar relevant websites is a kind of suicidal for your business. When your blog post has outbound links that point to a similar blog post like yours, search engines will trust your website as it looks like a good information source for a particular subject. So, having 3 to 5 inbound links as well as 1 to 3 outbound links on a blog post is always good.
You should always write a conclusion at the end. The conclusion includes major things stated in blogs. If some of your readers skim content, they may read your conclusion. When reading your conclusion they may find something interesting which prompts them to read your blog from top to bottom. So writing a conclusion is a great way to engage your reader.
MS Word or Google docs has an inbuilt auto-checker for grammar and spellings. It will help your work be error-free.
Grammarly is a software that checks your content grammar. It is very useful software. It has both a free and pro version.
If your blog uses a WordPress platform as a CMS, then Yoast SEO is a must-have plugin. Yoast SEO helps your post be as search engine friendly as possible. It lets your content have a focus keyword, optimize your page title & description. Yoast SEO has both a free version as well as a paid version. Yoast SEO pro version has many added benefits.
Google Adsense is the market leader in terms of sending out money to content creators. Joining Google Adsense is easy and can earn you a substantial amount of money. One good thing about Google Adsense is you can opt for both websites as well as Youtube blogging as it supports both the platform.
However, Google Adsense is always recommended but is not the only source of online advertisements. Outbrain and Taboola are the two most popular online advertising medium after Google Adsense.
Bloggers from Nepal need to be careful while choosing out of the three. Google Adsense does not recognize the Nepali language as of yet. So, if your website blog post content is in the Nepali language (in simple terms Devanagari script), you may not be approved for Google Adsense. For your best option can be Outbrain or Taboola. Make sure that your website passes the minimum threshold requirements set out by these two like minimum visitor requirements, website ranking, etc. Don’t worry, there are always local advertisements available, look out for those.
In affiliate marketing, your blog post contains links (or indirect advertisements) that led to the sales of products. In exchange, you may get a certain commission. It is a new concept in Nepal, however, it can be done.
Starting from a humble beginning to this day, the blog has become a household term. Irrespective of a category of types, the blog has become our go-to place for recent news or information. Tutorial blog (or microblog like stack overflow) has solved many of our problems. Anybody can write a blog post. With proper planning and habit of execution, your blog can be the next big thing in the blogging community. The blog has now become a career choice for many people and are substantial income and enjoy celebrity-like status. With the increasing blogging trends in the world as well as in Nepal, the difference between the mass media and blogging is becoming blurry ever than before.
