Hi friends! I am so excited to FINALLY be bringing you a blog post on How to Start a Blog!! Over the past year I have had so many people reach out to me and ask if I had any blog posts or resources on the subject & I’ve never truly felt ‘ready’ to create it, but any tips or guidance that I can give you guys will hopefully help! 🙂 There is honestly so much loaded into the question of “How do I start a blog?”, so I’m actually going to break this up into 2 different blog posts to make it a little easier to understand!
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How To Start A Blog
1. Figure out what you’re going to be blogging about! This can honestly be the hardest part about starting up your blog, especially if you’re passionate about so many different things! While your niche doesn’t have to be super super specific, it really does help to have a focus & a general theme. For example my niche is home decor, homemaking, and lifestyle.
Something else to be said about figuring out something to blog about is to make sure that you actually enjoy the topic. Remember that readers really won’t be interested it you aren’t! If you’re struggling with figuring out exactly what you want to write about, ask yourself a few questions:
-What am I passionate about?
-What do I have to offer my readers?
-What do I love doing for a hobby (decorating, organizing, hair/makeup, fashion, etc.)?
-Do my friends/family come to me for tips about any specific?
After going through these questions you’ll have a better understanding of what you may want your general theme to be
2. Pick your blog name & buy your domain. For your blog name you can either choose a name that reflects something of your niche or many people use their name as their blog name. Just remember to choose something that people will remember – nothing too long! Once you come up with a name you like, search it on google and make sure there aren’t any other blogs or sites that got it first (that happened to me!)!!
After choosing your name, it’s time to buy your domain! First, you need to check that it’s available and then you can buy it! I bought mine through GoDaddy.
3. Prepare 4-5 blog posts. This is personally something that I did right after purchasing my domain name (& a couple before), just to make sure that I would have content stacked for launch day & to make sure blogging was for me! I know not everyone does this, but it really helped me just to draft the posts in a Word Document and have them prepared! Spread the posts out over your first month of blogging or even just a couple of weeks – you will be glad that you did it!
As well as writing blog posts in advance, I would just make a rough ‘blog posting schedule’ for the next couple of months – this will get your mind moving & help you be productive/creative. To get prepared – buy a planner just for blogging. I personally love my Simplified Planner. I have been using these planners since my Sophomore year of college & I am never turning back (seriously) I buy one every year lol. They are a bit pricey, but I think it’s totally worth it! Target actually just got some Simplified Planners as a new line and I am so excited!!! They are better priced too!
4. Choose a blogging platform. There are several different blogging platforms to choose from – WordPress, Blogger, Six, Squarespace, and Weebly are some. I personally use WordPress and love it (not WordPress.com) – it’s very popular to use in the blogging community because of its functionality & flexibility.
Many people get confused about this, so I’ll explain! When you choose WordPress you have two different options:
-Hosted blogs, called WordPress.com, are free, but it limits the chance at potential income. This would be perfect if you’re wanting to use your blog as more of a journal or just for fun!
-Self-Hosted blogs, WordPress.org, costs some money, but gives you way more control & does not limit your income from blogging (do this option of you’re wanting to monetize!!)!
5. Pick your Theme. Your theme is basically the design or look of your overall website and you can get them from several different places! I got mine from Etsy and I love it. Just search ‘blog themes‘ & there will be tons of themes to choose from! I know that WordPress has some free ones that you can use too! It’s all up to you and what you like 🙂 I would suggest to think about your readers when choosing a theme – choose something that will be function, yet eye-catching!
Another great place to buy a theme is Creative Market. Here is a theme that I am seriously loving – this would be a great theme to start a blog with!
These are the first 5 steps on How to Start a Blog! Really, it just comes down to if you have an itch to start one – if you do, then just go for it! Next week I will be writing the next steps to starting up your blog including choosing a hosting company and what social channels you should use – it will be more about the details of getting some things set up, so be on the lookout.
If you have any questions you can email me at thegracegatheredhome@gmail.com! Or you can always DM me on IG – I love connecting with my followers through Instagram! I would love to be apart of your journey to starting a blog! You can also sign up to stay updated on all of my new blog posts about blogging resources by heading here to fill out the form!
Until next time!
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