Tips for starting a Blog

Blogging is a massive part of my life - I love the fact that I can keep all of my thoughts and feelings online and have my own corner of the Internet. My blog, asides from being my full time job now, has always been a sort of diary to me - an open diary that I share with other like-minded people. It has enabled me to connect with so many people who I may otherwise have never known, I share my life with them, my highs, my lows and my ordinary moments and they sometimes share their moments back with me, offering advice, support and online friendship, which to a stay at home/work at home Mum is invaluable.   

I get a lot of questions via social media from other people interested in blogging and starting up their own little corner of the web and often they think that you might have to be super tech savvy to start up a blog, but you don't. Today I'm going to share with you some easy tips for starting up your own blog..

Start with Blogger or Wordpress 

Two of the most popular blogging platforms are Blogger and Wordpress. Wordpress is often said to be better, but when I first started I opted for Blogger and it's always worked well for me, so I've just stuck with it. Blogger is a very popular blogging service from Google and it is incredibly easy to use On sign-up it will provide you with a range customisable templates for your blog. It has all the tools you need to start blogging including a page to check your stats (page views, pages linking in etc), a page to change your layout (where things are placed on your blog i.e post archives, search box etc), a page to manage google adsense and much much more. Basically, it's just all there and it's free to use. 

Choose a catchy blog name that you'll love and want to stick with

Once you decide on your blog name, I'd say from experience it's probably best to stick with it. Otherwise you may end up confusing your readers and it can cause problems when you've used your blog name on social media too and have to change it there too. So try and pick something that catches peoples attention, that is unique to you and that you are happy to have for the next few years or even longer. If however, you do want to change it after a while, it's of course totally up to you and it can be done. 

Get social

I have found that the best way to get people reading your blog is to be social. Sign up to platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use some hashtags. For example one of the hashtags I use most often when promoting my blog is #pbloggers (parent bloggers) but there are absolutely loads (and tons more on platforms like Instagram. Instagram - a photo based app, is really popular at the moment, especially with bloggers so it is definitely worth signing up a for an account on there. Follow people in your niche and interact with them. Tell them if you enjoy their content and generally start becoming a part of the community. People are far more likely to discover you if you go out of your way to reach out to them. 

Be YOU and be passionate about what you are blogging about

My best advice is to always be true to who you are with your online platforms. It is always far better to be natural than to try and be perfect. People will always relate to natural far more. Share your passions and don't be afraid to be a bit different. Choose topics that you love and feel the most passionate about and you will attract the right sort of readers. 

Be consistent

You don't want to blog meaningless posts just for the sake of it because in the world of blogging  quality is always better than quantity but you do want to ensure that you're posting often enough to keep your readers coming back and interested. Consistency is key but so is quality. 

Think about your blog design

When it comes to the design of your blog try to ensure that you have a clear picture of yourself in your sidebar so that people know what you look like, as well as your social media handles, a way for people to follow your blog. It's good to have an About Me page as well as a contact me page and a clear way for people to search categories. I personally like blogs where the photos fill the width of the  text space as I'm quite visual. Your blog should be simple, clean, easy to navigate but also have lots of you own personality in too. 

Submit your blog to search engines

You'll want other people to be able to find your blog easily so make sure that you submit your blog link wherever you can. Start with search engines. Just do a quick google search with the following - 'Submitting my blog link to search engines' and you should find what you're looking for.

Use photographs

It's nice to read blog posts that have a least one photograph of good quality to break the text up, so keep this in mind when you blog. Try to make sure the photograph isn't blurry and is relevant to your content. Good photos make a big difference. 

Promote, promote, promote

Once you start up your blog you'll want to attract people to it. Join Facebook groups relevant to your blog category, for example - I am a member of 'Mummy, beauty and lifestyle bloggers' amongst many others. I use this to find similar blogs but also to share my own blog posts so that others notice them and visit my site. Use the twitter hashtags relevant to your blog but don't over do it, you don't want to spam peoples time lines. 

Don't be afraid to ask

If you're not sure on something - ask. If you don't ask you wont know. I've found over the years that the blogging community on the whole is a friendly and supportive place so don't be afraid to ask. :)

And that concludes my tips for starting a blog! I hope you have found this somewhat helpful and if you do start your own blog then good luck, it's so much fun!  

Thank you for reading. 
Alex xo

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