I am a big, big fan of blogs growing organically. I know that according to some of the larger blogging Facebook groups, there are people are who are setting up lifestyle blogs for 6+ months to have it ready for some spectacular launch, but I much prefer bloggers who just start blogging and see what happens next. It is generally a more enjoyable ride for myself, and I think that you learn more if you slowly gain more traction and growth, as you collect skills and abilities as you need them rather than rushing to learn this whole new world at once. So, these are the first 11 steps of starting a blog that can be done in roughly an hour, and get you moving on your own blog!
I have to state a couple of things ahead of my steps: 1) This is aimed at someone who does intend to run their blog for a while, as it aims at setting you up for the long run! It doesn’t mean that it isn’t useful for the dabbler, though. 2) These steps are applicable for people who are looking to hobby blog, as well as those who wish to monetise.
1. Choose a Provider
I am a big fan of WordPress.com, but there is also WordPress.org, Blogger, Wix, Squarespace, and any number of other providers. You will find people far and wide on the internet who will say that you can only monetise if you are on WordPress.org, but from what I can see, that means that you can’t put ads on a WordPress.com site (and you have to have MASSIVE amounts of traffic for ads to be profitable), and you can’t add some affiliate links. Do a bit of research and decide what platform is most comfortable for you right now- don’t make choices based on you wanting to earn a full-time living from a blog down the road, as a) those options typically require more time or money to be invested, and b) that day may never come. If you do want to switch later on, you can typically find a service to help you migrate your stuff.
2. Choose Your Blog Name and URL
This is actually a fairly important step, and I would put a fair amount of time into it. A blog name has to be unique and recognisable but can’t be too long or wordy, can’t be confusing, and should probably be something that can be said easily. Now I know that people will hate me for saying this, but I would recommend staying away from the BLANK + BLANK names (ie. Pizza & Pillows, or whatever combo you have chosen). They are very easily dated, and to be honest, don’t stand out in any real way anymore. I would ensure that your name reflects what you will be writing about! You can also have a different blog name from your URL (web address), but I’m not sure how to go about marketing that. (Bloggers who do, please let us know in the comments!) You can change your name down the road, but that can be a difficult and frustrating process.
3. Select Your Theme
If you are on WordPress, spend some time playing around and select your theme! I believe that most WordPress blogs start with 1 or 2 default themes, and while they aren’t bad, I don’t think that they are suitable for a lot of blogs. There are many free themes available (as well as paid themes, if you are looking to invest) that you can choose from, so spend a moment or two looking at the themes to chose from and grab one that strikes your fancy! You can always change your theme, so selecting a theme now doesn’t mean that you can’t change it later on. (And again. And again. And again!)
4. WRITE AN ABOUT ME PAGE
This is my biggest pet peeve for new bloggers- I love following smaller bloggers. In fact, most of the blogs I read have less than 500 followers. However, I will not follow your blog if there is not an About Me page. Why should I be reading about you? What makes you a worthwhile person to follow? What will you be writing about? It doesn’t have to be a long page, but it needs to be there. (If I find the “This is an example of a Page. Unlike posts….” text on your About Me page, you can guarantee that I will not be following, reading occasionally, or recommending your blog.) Tell us why we should be reading your writing! If we went to the point of looking for your About Me page, it means we are interested and want more- capitalise on it.
5. Familiarise Yourself with the Admin Side of Your Page
I recommend poking around the back end of your blog/website at the beginning, to get a handle on things now. WordPress makes it pretty easy to avoid having to go into the Admin section if you don’t want to but in case you ever have to, it is much easier to find your way around it when you don’t have eight thousand pages and menus to sort through. (Sidenote: there are so many pages that are in there but not published on my blog, and I can’t figure out how to get rid of them. They are just irritating.) I also find that it makes me more confident to poke around now because I spent some time at the beginning learning what is what!
6. Write a One Sentence Summary of What You Want Your Blog to Be
Now, this may seem like jumping ahead to some bloggers, but this only seems to get more difficult to do the longer that you have been blogging, so I would take a stab at it now- you can always rewrite it later! It is useful to have an elevator pitch version of your blog in case you are a brave soul and you want to tell people about it. It’s also simply a great skill to have in the working world, as inevitably you will have to explain something to an impatient someone- succinct description is KEY.
7. Follow Some Similar Blogs
Don’t follow these blogs in a “I’m going to duplicate your blog” kind of way, but rather as an idea of what people in your genre/ niche are doing right now! If most bloggers are being honest, traffic and viewers are important to us, and giving your intended audience what they are expecting to see is a good way to set up a solid base for your blog. It’s also a great way to make connections and possibly even find guest posting opportunities, if you comment and actively engage with their blog! (However, don’t be like me and put a ton of time into promoting other blogs, as your own blog may suffer for no real benefit.)
8. Find a Mentor
Now, I don’t mean find an official Mentor who will answer every single question and walk you through every tiny step of blogging, I mean, try and find a friendly blogger who can give you sound advice and is willing to share their experiences with you. You can do this is in a few different ways- you can either reach out to a blogger via their Contact Me page or their blog email address (I wouldn’t choose a professional blogger, as they typically don’t have time to do this and may charge you if they do), or you can join a blogging group or two. Blogging groups are wonderful for getting feedback and quick answers, although it can take a while to find your people. Play around and find a few people who are willing to listen!
9. Claim Related Social Media Handles
This is related to selecting your name- go and claim all of the related social media handles for your blog now. No, you may never decide to use Twitter for your blog, but it is incredibly frustrating to decide that you do want to add a social media network to your blog only to find out that your blog name has already been taken as a handle. Also, if possible don’t be like me- try and choose one name across all accounts. It was tough in my case as my blog name is slightly longer and there are character limits, but mine are either: An Historian About Town, An Historian Blog, or An Historian (for branding across all networks). Along with this, I would recommend making a separate account from your personal account- I’m not a fan when people co-opt their personal accounts, as your personal account isn’t typically content as your blog, and I am following your blog 🙂 (I know that people don’t want to “start from scratch” but it’s going to happen at some point.)
10. Publish Your First Post
It seems counter intuitive to come this late in the list, but it’s time to publish your first post! In the largest blogging group I am in, ladies swear that your first post is make or break it, and it absolutely has to be perfect and that you have to write and rewrite it for months until it is a Cartier necklace of a blog post. I’m here to disagree- once you start publishing more posts, the likelihood that someone is going to go back to your first post is small, and it is just to get the ball rolling. Get posting and don’t make excuses why you can’t publish a post, just put it out there!
11. Stick to a Schedule
This is also a huge point of contention for a lot of bloggers- if you are aiming to bring in traffic and visitors, I would recommend sticking to a schedule so that people know when to find your posts. That schedule doesn’t have to be insane- maybe it is once post a week, maybe it’s a post on the 1st and 15th of the month, maybe it is a daily post. Whatever schedule works for you, stick to it! I do go directly to blog URLs to read new posts for a lot of blogs (instead of looking in the WordPress reader or BlogLovin’), and if you have an erratic posting schedule, I will stop going to check there. My recommendation is to write posts a few days early so that you aren’t continuously changing your schedule, but that is a whole other post!
New bloggers, what do you find most overwhelming about blogging? And seasoned bloggers, what tips would you give new bloggers?
Until tomorrow,
The Historian!
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Hey! Just stumbled upon your blog and I’m enjoying your posts! I’m a history blogger/ historian from Canada. I’ve had my blog for a couple of years but now I have the time to put into being more consistent. One of the toughest things for me is certainly the scheduling. I know people interact with content differently on different social medias, so I have been trying to stay consistent with my content while playing around a bit to see what works best. I just ordered business cards a couple of months ago – yours’ are so cute! Anyways, thanks for the good reads and happy writing! All the best, Kirby (History with Kirby).
Liked the points you have made.I believe that there is no perfect moment to start a blog.Consistency is definitely the key to a successful blogger.There has to be a takeaway fro the blog for me to be attracted to it.
I typically do need a takeaway, a point to it. I follow bloggers on social media to keep up with the day to day, I don’t necessarily want day to day chat in a blog post. Thanks for stopping by!!
Thank you so much for these tips. I’ve been wandering around the idea of starting a blog and what to do. This really helped to just get me going and gave me that extra bit of reassurance I needed to push forward. I know this will be a learning process, so let me know if you have any other good hints for beginners. Thanks a bunch!!!
I would also recommend having a good idea of what you want to blog about- that is the one thing I would change about my own blog way back when. Now that I am trying to buckle down with my blog, I am really wishing I had narrowed my view down! (I had no plans of doing anything particular with mine at the time, though)
Hello! I have really understood and followed your blog but can you please do me a favour… I actually am a new blogger and I really can’t find a nice relatable Name for my blog .please suggest some names by checking out my new blog .i m currently using some random word as the name.
Great advice, though I’ve fallen foul of number 2! ☺ I definitely think sticking to a schedule instead of just posting when inspiration strikes helped me in the beginning.
Hahaha, you haven’t!! Your name isn’t two random nouns, it’s a true description 🙂 If you heard “lovely and grateful” in conversation, it wouldn’t be odd- you might double take to hear “Sprinkles and Sass” thrown around haha! And I think schedules are VERY important ? There is nothing to say you can’t write when you have inspiration, just publish it within your normal schedule!
This is the first post I’m reading from you and it’s awesome! Even though I already started blogging, it was definitely good to hear what I could be doing better. I totally agree with always needing an About Me page, I like to get to know writers and their background. I was in sort of a blogging rut about a month ago, and I’m just now getting back into a regular schedule but I’m looking forward to making the blog the best it can be! Thanks for the tips 🙂
Thanks so much for stopping by!! I find that even if your writing/editing schedule isn’t regular, your publishing schedule still can be! And I hit a blogging rut probably 8-10 times a year haha- I’ve started keeping a list of 150+ ideas to draw on when I get stuck 🙂
I like number 6 have a sentence to describe your blog. Perfectionism is the killer of creativity if people wait for a post to be perfect they may never hit the publish button. I think new bloggers should have a few posts done or in draft so they don’t feel overwhelmed after publishing the first one. What next!!
I have to write my one sentence, elevator pitch description of what the new phase of my blog will look like, and it’s taking a little longer than I would like haha! And that is a fantastic tip 🙂
I also think it’s better to just start with one post instead of taking months to build up for a launch. I’ve been around for a while but my current blog is new. I don’t even have an about me page… whooops ??♀️ But I picked a theme I liked and went live with a post. I know I have a little tweaking to do but this time around I am trying to focus more on actuall blogging than on how my site looks, because tweaking is very distracting.
You can definitely tweak as time goes on!! That’s what I’ve seemed to notice with people who are waiting for the perfect moment to go live- there will always be something to tweak and fix!
All fabulous advice! It’s rough starting but you grow as you write. It’s the only way I could have done this – now to just work on my social media presence! #ISuck
Social media is so much work, for what seems like a tiny amount of growth. I put so much time into Instagram and see almost no growth- I wonder if it is actually worthwhile.
Thank you for writing this. It really helps and motivates me to continue. I just started my own blog not to long ago and I’m excited to see where the journey will bring me. Thank you for the tipps :). If you have time I would really appreciate if you could check out my blog and give me some feedbackn (you really don’t have to). Thank you very much xx
Such a helpful post! Sticking to my schedule has been huge for me!
If I had to pick one recommendation, it’s the schedule- without a doubt, you have to train your readers where and when to find you! You can’t just rely on notifications and emails for them to read your posts 🙂
Hello! First, I want to say I really enjoy reading your blog. I like that your topics vary and your writing style is easy to read. In this post, you mention finding a blogging group. I was wondering how I might find one? I’m pretty new at this and can benefit from feedback. Thanks! ?
Oh, thank you so much! I am happy to hear that you are enjoying it 🙂 I would recommend searching “Niche + bloggers” on Facebook to find groups! I find that there are a lot of groups that have strong herd mentality, ie. “If you use THIS PROVIDER + THIS THEME + TAILWIND, you will have successsssssssss” that just isn’t true! You can also search for “new bloggers” or “CITY bloggers” if you are looking for local bloggers to connect with!
Thank you so much! I will see what I can find! ? Looking forward to reading more!
These are helpful steps for someone who wants to start a blog!
A tip I would give is don’t give up! It can be hard for new bloggers to not compare themselves to established bloggers who have thousands of followers & tons of likes on their posts, but if they stick to blogging & are consistent w/ their quality posts, they can reach whatever goals they set!
It is so true!! From the stats that I’ve read, most bloggers abandon their blog somewhere between 6-12 months after starting- if you can keep going, you’ve given yourself a great foundation!!