HOW TO: Start a blog (& maintain it)

This is a common post most bloggers end up creating – about how they survived the first few months blogging. It is crucial that in the first few months you don’t give up as they are the most challenging of all the months. After you have established a brand or started working with brands hopefully it will get easier. I’m not quite at that level yet but I am actively searching for brands to collaborate with, in 2019. Anyway, here’s my top 5 tips…

1. Make sure you have content ready BEFORE making your blog.

This is important because when you first open your blog and ask people to view it, you want to have some content already so they want to come back for more in the future. I know from experience when I first started uploading content people were confused by it as they didn’t know what I would post next & if they would like it (I’m sure some still do wonder where this blog is going, I’m working on it – I promise!). The more consistent content you have the more a person is likely to follow it as they want to read more in the future.

2. Find a topic YOU love talking about, a lot!

This is a decider on whether your blog will thrive or fail. If you have a topic you love and can’t stop talking about that’s what you should talk about on your blog. I know from experience that I choose a topic and ran out of things to talk about because I wasn’t enthusiastic enough and had no more conversation to write about. I have since changed my blog name & topics to suit what I like and it works much better.

3. Decide early on, what themes you like

This is something you should do preferably before you promote your blog. It is important that a theme shows your uniqueness in a rapidly growing world of blogs. Your theme should be something you would want to read & is drawn to you. To put it bluntly, if it is a shit theme & does not follow what you’re saying, people won’t want to read it anymore … of course, you can always change your theme after and make it better in time.

4. Get solid advice from other bloggers and friends

This is a tough one if none of your friends and family blog or work in IT/graphics. It will be crucial that you view other blogs that you admire or want as a base to start your blog (however you can not under any circumstances copy them… EVER!) My advice would be to create your site but do not publish it until you have asked others you know to look over it, even if its just the menu’s don’t look quite right or the theme doesn’t show your personality (see above), in the long run, you will thank them!

5. Think of an AWESOME blog name

This is a really interesting one. Although if you stick with a hosting site (I will talk more about what that means in another post or Google it now!) you can change your name multiple times if you don’t like it. the best blog start with a unique name (or the bloggers own) which get them noticed. When you eventually go self-hosted (IE a .com site) you want to stand out from the crowd and be noticed as an interesting name for potential readers to remember and brands to want to work with.

That is the end of my ranting and raving. I hope these (admittedly brief) tips and tricks will help you create your very own blog like mine (or better, who knows). If there is a trick I mentioned above that you used tell me if it worked.