How To Start A Blog And Actually Keep It Up
There are so many reasons why you should start a blog. It might be to have a place to voice your opinions, to share your ideas, develop your career or to keep friends and family updated as you travel.
Either way, writing on a blog is a great way to spend some free time and there’s even the potential to earn money off of it in the long run. However, with so many blogs and so much information out there, it can be confusing to know how to start a blog and what’s more, keep it up. Here are our top tips.
Think about what you want to write about
If you want to start a blog then your first step should be deciding what you actually want to blog about. Whether it’s food, travel, fitness or a specific hobby, there are no boundaries when it comes to blogging.
Keep in mind that if you are planning to make money from your blog or use it as part of a professional CV then it pays to pick a niche. This is because there’s so much competition out there that it’s better to narrow your focus down in order to stand out. For example rather than just doing a travel blog, why not do an adventure travel blog or better yet an adventure travel blog that focuses on doing so on a budget.
Choose your blog name
It’s best not to change your blog’s name that often because as soon as you create your site and start posting content, it will get indexed by Search Engines. Constantly changing the name of your blog will mean that it is harder for your blog to get found online.
When it comes to picking a name, try to think of something that’s relevant to your content. It’s important to keep it unique and memorable- a little humour never hurt anyone. The best ways to come up with blog names is to have a bit of a brainstorm on paper. Maybe come up with words associated with your topic and branch off from there. It’s also worth having a look at other peoples blogs to see what names have and haven’t been done.
Pick your Blogging Platform
Blogging Platforms are sites that host your blog and choosing one of these is the first step that you need to take in actually creating your blog. The most popular blogging platform is WordPress which is what the majority of sites and blogs are built on. WordPress is free and as blogging platforms go it’s pretty simple to use and visually appealing. Other popular blogging platforms include Wix, Blogger and Tumblr.
Choose your site layout
WordPress has a number of free themes available for you to choose when you first start your blog. The theme that you choose is integral to the overall feel of your blog and different ones will be suitable for different blogs depending on the type of content that you are going to be posting. Blog platforms usually let you demo a theme first so have a play around with those until you find one that’s right for you. You can always change it at a later date.
Add in your pages
Pages are important when it comes to helping people (and search engines) navigate your site so have a think about what pages you would like to include. It’s usually a good idea to have a Home, About, Contact page and then a different page for each of your main categories such as Travel, Food, Fashion etc.
Write your first post
Every writer knows that the hardest of writing is when you’re faced with that blank page and a blog is no different. When you first start a blog, be sure to hit that new post button straight away. Whether you write an introduction post or get stuck in their right away, as soon as you’ve got your first post published, you’re on your way to blogging success.
Share your content
When you first start a blog, the idea of sharing your content can be really daunting. You might feel that it’s not ready or good enough to share yet but in truth, most bloggers always feel a little like that. Blogging is always going to be a work in progress but it’s so important to share all of this amazing content that you’re creating with others from the get-go. What’s more, knowing that people are actually reading the content that you are writing is when blogging starts to become addictive.
Have Fun with it
It’s so important to have fun and continually try out new ideas on your blog. Be it new themes, a new tone of voice or even a whole new direction with it. Either way, just get creative with it and express yourself. The beauty of a blog is that’s your very own to with what you want.
Challenge yourself
Blogging is a fantastic opportunity for you to really push yourself out of your comfort zone. Get inventive with it, share your thoughts and watch online tutorials so that you can create something you’re really proud of. Having a blog can push you to seek adventures and new experiences that you can write about and in doing so, blogging becomes really addictive.
There’s always more to know when it comes to blogging but it’s a learn as you go kind of thing. Every successful blogger started off with an empty site so don’t let that blank page scare you. The best way to start a blog is to do just that and before long, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
