Blog writing cannot and should not be compared to ‘Dear Diary’. Time and technology has continued to make writing an art form. In this field, that hosts luminaries like Orson Welles, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury to name a few, sci fi pieces of literature, technology or generic blogs are appreciated and its writers honored. Hence, it should not matter if the person writing a piece of great science fiction or an article on a technology or even their favorite boy band is a 50+ year old man or teen blog writers from Nebraska.
The exposure that the written article, essay, story or blog receives won’t look at the age but at the words written. In case you know or have a teen who has a wild imagination, power them up with these tools and sites with which they can explore the depths of their imagination and transfer into words their characters, likes and dislikes. In this blog we shall have a systematic glance at the process for teen blog writers
The First Step: How to Begin.
The first question that any writer asks is “where do I begin?” So, do not worry. For we have the answers for you!
How does one choose a topic? Well, here are some blog ideas that every teen can write about:
- Favorite Bands.
- Favorite food or new cuisine tried.
- Sports and hobbies.
- Fears and insecurities and ways of overcoming them.
- The coolest celebrity encounter ever.
- What plans one is making for the future.
- Review the features of an electronic devices and what and why will you change them.
- The exotic locations travelled.
- A role model that has inspired you.
- Favorite fandom and its OTP.
Once you have chosen a topic, keep a few of these points in mind while writing:
- Do not share your personal information on sites. Use a pen name or a pseudonym.
- Give yourself a doable deadline. Start with a blog a day and then increase the word count for the same. Slowly increase the number of blogs to be done in a day. This is the best way to get your feet in the ground.
- Always choose a topic that is close to your heart.
- Do not copy content from other sites and post it. That’s plagiarism and can be easily spotted.
- Do not use images that are copyright of any organization or company. Create your own art. If you need to use a copyrighted acknowledge the source below the image.
- Give it a personal touch. Do so by sharing your experience in dealing with the same.
- Write without worrying about judgement. But, do write for your target audience.
The Next Step: Which Site to Use?
One thing to always keep in mind is your privacy, safety and security lies in your hands. Many sites that you shall be visiting may have handed over their site security details to third party vendors. Because of which it is near impossible to stream only select few to hold on to your information. Hence, it is advised that one not share any personal information such as name, age, address on the sites. Even your IP Address can be hacked into and one can have a security breach on hands. To prevent it, either go the VPN route or simply use a proxy server. Below mentioned are the 2 variety of writing websites for teens one can use for their blogs:
- Mainstream: On one end of the spectrum are platforms like Tumblr, Wattpad, TeenInk, Figment, OneTeenStory and NaNoWriMo. These platforms have a host of variety to offer their young users. With the help of hashtags, they can easily filter out their blog into separate sections. (this is a low or almost no income generation option)
- Self-Hosting: Why follow mainstream routes when one can easily create their own sites? A free blog whose hosting and domain name comes under you is another way to go. Hosting providers such as GoDaddy or Hostgator offer up to a year of hosting and domain names for a very small sum of $10. Similarly, Blogger.com & WordPress.com are hosting portals that offer their services for free. (another low or no income generation here)
Step Three: How to Generate An Income?
What starts the income generation wheel, is when one begins earning a revenue on their sites after deducting the amount it costs to maintain them. A unique web page with an equally unique domain name can tweak revenues from these 3 popular venues:
- Advertising Revenue: Advertising sites are a great source of generating an income. Setting up an account with them must be done only in the presence of your parent or guardian as such sites seek banking details and other information that is very sensitive. Once an account has been created, paste their code into your site, and it displays their ad. The most popular sites for the same are Google AdSense, Media.net, ClickSor, Infolinks and BuySellAds.
- Marketing Revenue: One can even link themselves on to someone else’s blog to send them some traffic to become discovered. More on the lines of mutually beneficial. Reviews of small scale artists music and artwork and eateries on the blog is also financially beneficial.
- Host Online Auctions: Another sector wherein one can earn a revenue from their site is by selling local items. These items need to be accompanied by an image, review and details on the same. Creating the content of the same and selling them locally earns the hosting site a good percentage as profit. Bonuses can be generated if one can coordinate and offer day couriers. The financial section of the same can be done via PayPal or online banking. (We repeat ourselves, but do set up this process under the guidance of a parent or a guardian)
The foundation a teen creates for themselves shall be of great profit for them in the future.
Step Four: The Future Opportunities
The experience a teen gets in running and hosting a site, if not easily forgotten. As they look for professional ventures for themselves upon coming of age, they can utilize the same in the following sectors:
- Advertising Agencies
- Educational courseware Publication Houses
- Content Marketing
- Novel and Screenplay writing
- Entertainment Industry
- Media Houses
- Publishing Houses
The above mentioned are just a few of the many industries and sectors that shall open doors for a teen who has managed to earn themselves an income from blog writing. The start may be small but it results in a bang! Keep writing!