INTRODUCTION
So you've been wanting to start a blog for a while now, but you aren't sure exactly how you should proceed? If your answer's yes, then keep reading to learn everything you need to know to succeed. It has taken years of learning and researching to get where I am today. To help you in your journey, I'd like to share everything that I wish I had known when I first started my blog in the easiest to understand way possible.
1. Making Your Website
There are many different platforms you can use to make the website for your blog. If you want to start off without spending any money on their base subscriptions, I recommend using Wix, Wordpress, or Weebly (what's with all the W's?). If you do want to use a platform that's a little bit nicer but does cost money even for a base subscription, I would recommend using SquareSpace. I have only used Wix and Blogger. From what I remember, Blogger is pretty outdated which is why I wouldn't recommend it. I have had a great experience with Wix, though, and have heard amazing things about Wordpress and Weebly.
Once you choose your platform, you will make an account and choose your blog name. Make sure to choose a name that you like, isn't copying another blog's or product's name, and relates to what you want to write about or something that is very important to you. Don't worry if you aren't sure about what you want to talk about! All of these platforms have drag and drop website editors so you don't need to worry about coding. This will make your life so much easier.
Before publishing your website, create a 'home', 'blog', and 'about me' page for your website. Your home page should have a space for a short introduction or letter to your visitors, your most recent blog posts, a subscription button to gain subscribers, and links and photos to your social medias (if you have any). Your blog page should include all of your blog posts. If you can add a search button, categories, or tags to help your visitors find what they want to read about, this would be very helpful. Your about me page should include photos of you, a short bio, your blog's purpose, and contact information or a contact form if you don't want a separate contact page. All pages should include your logo/title and some sort of links to social media. Depending on your blog, you may not want to include all of these pieces on your pages but I highly encourage you to as it makes your blog look more professional, credible, and accessible to your visitors.
Now that you have all of your pages laid out with bare-bone elements, it's time to choose your fonts, website theme, and decorations. I learned the hard way that all of these pieces need to add to the legibility of your blog. If you choose a beautiful calligraphy font but your readers can't actually read it, then they'll just get frustrated and leave your website. Make sure your text is big enough to actually read and differentiate between sections. Cute colors and fonts are a nice element to add to your text but if there are too many variations then it will also lead to literal gibberish. I had the most difficult time choosing a website theme for the first couple years of my blog because all of the ones I liked made the website more difficult to navigate and read. Some of them would actually hurt my eyes! It may be easiest to start with a colored background without any sort of pattern or design. When choosing decorative elements like graphics, watch out for blurriness. Again, do your best to have fonts, decorations, and backgrounds that go together. This just makes the website so much easier to understand and look visually appealing.
2. Designing Your Photos
Congrats! You have a blog that makes sense and looks good! It's time to add pictures. Be careful, though! If you don't have consistency between your photos and your website, it will start to look bad or stop making sense. If you want to learn where to find photos to use on your blog without worrying about copyright, there will soon be a resource in my free resource library for my subscribers. Make sure to stay on the lookout for it! I'm going to be talking about creating consistency in your photos and adding text to them in this section. Some people like to use pictures that have the same colors but I find that difficult to maintain. My philosophy for creating consistency is in the topic of the photo and filters. Whenever I post a photo on my Instagram, I always use the same filter to force the pictures to match no matter what colors they are. What I mean by topic is the objects or people that are in the photo. On my blog, most of my pictures are related to flowers and nature. They generally feature a young woman posing in them. I occasionally use photos on my blog that I've taken myself but for now, this is easiest for me.
If I want to share my blog post anywhere, most places require a photo. If your blog post is unrelated to the photo, how is the person that stumbles across it going to know that they are being taken to your blog? That's why adding text is very important to your pictures when sharing them. The text on photos from your blog should include your blog name/author, the link to the website, and title of your post. To help people recognize your blog when they see your graphics, is also done through consistency. This means you use the same exact colors, fonts, and placement of the text for every photo. I personally use Canva to do this, but some other good apps and/or websites to add text to photos are Phonto, Spark Post, and Word Swag.
3. Choosing Your Blogging Niche/Topic
A niche is defined as "a situation or activity specially suited to a person's interests, abilities, or nature" according to The Free Dictionary. In blogging, this is reflected by not all bloggers writing about the same thing and creating consistency in what their readers and visitors expect to read about. For example, there are lifestyle bloggers, food bloggers, fashion bloggers, photography bloggers, travel bloggers, mommy bloggers, and so many more. You can be as general or specific in your niche as you want to. On my blog, I like to think of it as a self-care and real life blog because I talk about everything from mental illness to art to books to travel. It's also not quite lifestyle so that's my attempt at choosing a niche. The reason why some bloggers choose to get more specific in their niche is so they know what to write about and their audience knows what to expect. For example, a fitness blogger wouldn't suddenly start writing about fashion. Their audience is following for fitness information not fashion information. This could lead to losing subscribers, receiving large amounts of uncalled for negative feedback, and confusing subscribers about your blog in general. This is why I like to use categories. That way people who like to read about mental illness know exactly where to look to find what they're interested in. If I were to choose a more specific niche, I would worry about running out of ideas and things to talk about. That's why I don't want to limit myself in what I am quote-unquote allowed to talk about.
However, the most important thing about choosing a niche is making sure you choose the right one. If I were to start a blog where I only talk about fashion but I call my blog a lifestyle blog or a travel blog, it doesn't make sense. After choosing a niche, you may need to change it or choose a new one down the road and there's nothing wrong with that.
If you aren't sure what your niche should be, look at your own life. What do you spend your time doing, watching, and talking about? What makes you excited? What do you wish you people knew about you and others like you? This is what your niche should relate to.
4. Writing Your Blog Posts
You have a website designed, photos found, and niche chosen? Your blog actually needs posts to be a blog! Finding topics to write about can be really tricky even for the most experienced writers. Thank you, writer's block...said no one ever. If you feel uninspired, the best thing to do may be to write through it. Write out your thoughts or your plan for the day. Write anything! If you feel absolutely exhausted and annoyed by writing, it may be best to take a break. Inspiration is everywhere and you could find it on the break you're taking. Seriously, take a walk, watch tv, take a nap, color in your favorite coloring book, crochet, play a sport, do whatever will make you need to do for your break. Don't let it be something that will frustrate you even more. If you've tried both of these things and you still don't have any ideas, return to the basics. What is your niche? What have you enjoyed reading about recently? Should you rewrite an old blog post because you've learned something new relating to it? Is there something you could tell your audience about and review? By now, I'm sure you have at least one idea. If not, don't give up! An idea will find its way to you.
I am lucky enough for writing to come to me naturally, now (after years of tutoring in my childhood). If you feel like you're a bad writer, the only way to get better is to keep writing! I know that is what you always hear and takes a long time to actually make a difference. That's why I have an easier idea. You should start off your blog with voice-typing. Most phones and computers have at least one program where you can talk and it automatically transfers into text. It may not recognize all of your words or type something that's completely different than what you said. After talking out your blog post, edit it! Make sure everything is spelled correctly and create breaks in the giant paragraph you created. Now, your idea will sound natural and make sense to your readers even if you aren't naturally good at writing. If you're worried about spelling or grammar, try out a program like Grammarly to help with your writing. I also recommend it if you have dyslexia. You may not realize you're spelling something wrong without it.
5. Creating a Color Theme & Other Small Things
I have only recently begun creating a color theme. It naturally happened as my blog developed, but some people actively choose colors. This just means that their website design, decorations, text colors, and anything else involving color follow a certain pattern or set color rules.
Create social media accounts for your blog where you advertise your blog, show behind the scenes, original photos, etc. I have found the most important ones to be Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, although I don't actually have a Twitter account. All of these allow you to use hashtags and share things you may not usually include in a blog post. It gives you more exposure and allows you to connect with your audience in a more personal way.
Do you want to make money with your blog? The easiest options are using ads or affiliate links and deals to monetize your blog but these tend to require a larger audience. If you have a lot of quality information to share about one topic, you could look into publishing a guide, class, or an ebook (this is work intensive, though). If you enjoy writing poetry or creating art, you could sell graphics, printables, or custom pieces for a set price. If you enjoy photography, you could sell your pictures as stock photos. The options are endless. You also need to make sure you aren't breaking copyright laws when you do any of these things.
It's time to go out and create your blog! If you follow any of this advice, let me know and I will check out your blog!
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