This is the first of my blogging for beginners series, and it’s for anyone who is thinking of starting a new blog or has just started out on their blogging adventure. Now, I’m not a blogging expert but I have been blogging for over a year now and there are a few tips I’ve picked up along the way. When I started blogging, I jumped in, actually I just dived straight right in without thinking. I wanted to write something so I created a blog and just did it. I’d heard that WordPress was the easiest blogging platform to use so I created a WordPress.com account and got started…
Which is fine, there’s no real right or wrongs to blogging – however there’s a few things you should think about before you start.
1. What platform are you going to use?
Choosing a blog depends on a number of factors. Self-hosted or hosted. Microblog or long-form posts. Photo or text driven. The list is endless. Personally I’ll always recommend WordPress, I started off with a free WordPress.com blog and once I felt confident in my blogging ability and wanted full control over my blog I migrated it to a self-hosted blog powered by WordPress. There a ton of posts listing the different blogging platforms and their various pros & cons, here’s a great post from Shareaholic to check out.
2. Decide why and whom you are blogging for? Find your niche.
Are you blogging to share your passion with like-minded people? Do you want to help other people with your tips/tutorials/guides/advice? Do you want to make money? Or are you looking to promote your business? Is becoming internet-famous your goal? Consider what it is you want to write and who you want to market it to as it will help you establish the voice of your blog. If you start out writing a blog about gardening and then dramatically swap to writing about all things astrology, chances are you’re going to lose a lot of your readers who expect to read posts about roses and slug repellant but are finding horoscopes instead.
3. Think long and hard about a name. Do you love your name?
You’ll be glad you did. I can’t exactly remember how I came up with Blondes Love Cupcakes, but I know I originally had the idea to write all about baking which I was really interested in at the time… However I’ve swayed more into beauty and lifestyle posts. Simply because I am absolutely rubbish at taking food photography, there’s a whole art form involved there which I suck at. But by the time I decided to change the name too many people already knew it and I was branded BLC, which I still love, but I’d rather change it. Think about how you’ll feel if your name is called out at a blog awards, will you embarrassed? Chances are if you cringed at that idea – you need to change your name. Keep it simple, something that shows your personality but describes your content too
4. Think aesthetics. Clean and fresh. Is your blog easy to read?
One of the first things that attract me to a blog are how it looks. Are the posts easy to read, is the blog easy to navigate or is it a nightmare of sliders, widgets and flashing animation? There’s more to a good reader-friendly blog than design. Think about your blog from a reader’s perspective. We live in a world where our attention span is on average 5 seconds, if you don’t see the information you were looking for when you clicked to a post straight away – you’re going to go somewhere else. People skim. Make your content skim-able, break it into smaller paragraphs and use bright, clear photos to keep a reader’s attention.
5. How much time are you willing to spend on your blog?
For most people blogging is just a hobby (until it turns into something more). A hobby is defined as ‘something done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure’, so keep that in mind. Once blogging turns into something that stresses you out, it isn’t a hobby. It’s work. Are you going to post once, twice or three times a week? Or more? Put aside some time every week to research and write your posts. Do you need to take photographs to accompany the post (especially relevant to beauty blogging), if so factor that into the time it takes to write the post. If you’re writing posts just to put something are then they are probably rushed and badly written. Take your time and enjoy blogging.
6. Are you contactable?
Are you going to write under a nickname or just be yourself. People like connecting with the people behind the blogs. and I have gotten numerous emails from happy readers asking for advice on blogging/thanking me for certain posts/asking to work with me that they probably wouldn’t have written as just a comment. Create an email address dedicated specifically to your blog if you’re worried about your privacy. Some people are nervous about family and friends reading their blogs – don’t be, you’ll see they will 100% end up being your biggest and most loyal fans. Will you link your social media accounts so people can contact you via Twitter/Facebook/Instagram?
If you want more help there are a ton of resources available online to help out new bloggers and you can always reach out to your favorite bloggers on social media accounts to get any advice you need! Remember, blogging is supposed to be fun. If it isn’t then you may need to re-think why you’re doing it. If you have any topics you would like covered in my bloggers for beginners series then drop me a comment!
