If you have been around these waters before, you will know that my blog is fairly new. I only started it in the end of November, so around two months ago. And while everything is still fresh in my mind, I thought I would write down some of my tips on how to start your own blog!
1. What do you want?
Before you start doing anything, you of course have to decide what you want. What should your blog/posts be about? Are you going to stick to just one thing, say baking recipes, or are you going to do a little bit of everything (like myself)? Obviously, you can change your mind on how you want to do things. But I found it really helped me to brain storm which categories I, as a reader, would find interesting and then going with those things.
Another thing to consider is which direction you want your space on the internet to go. Do you want to keep it just very informative or do you want to tell a personal story? Are you just doing it for fun or do you want to turn it into a career? Depending on what you want to do with it, you probably want to design the websites features.
2. Decide which provider you want to go with
If you’re an IT-nerd or know how to code, you can skip this step. But I am as far away as one can be from knowing anything about IT/coding. The sensible thing to do in a situation like this: go to someone who knows their shit. If you are planning on turning your website into a career, you probably want to invest a little more money and actually work 1 on 1 with a professional web designer. If you’re like me, and just want to do this for fun, you can check out different blog providers. The one I went with is WordPress. But, to be completely honest, I don’t know I would go with them again. For me, setting up the blog in the first place wasn’t super intuitive, and I had to watch many a YouTube-tutorial to get it going. And sometimes, I’m still struggling. There are loads of different providers, so just make sure you do you’re research and find which one works best for you.
3. Create a name for your blog and buy a domain
My next tip on how to start your own blog: create a (unique) name for it. But before you go with a crazy cool name for it, think about how you’re going to like it in a few years time. We have all been there with our very *uNiQuE* email addresses. If your blog is supposed to be about all kinds of topics; travel, food, fashion and the likes, you might just want to go with a very general name. That’s also why I just chose my name – Lena Wessler – as a domain. But if you’re blog is going to be about baking only, you could consider a baking related name. In any case, you want to avoid confusion as to what it is all about.
After deciding on a name, (I think) you should buy a domain. You don’t have to do this obviously, but it does look much more professional than having random letters or numbers as your websites name. Depending on which provider you decided to go with, you can buy a domain with them. And once again, make sure it’s a simple name: you don’t want your readers struggle with typing it into their search bars.
4. Get creative
Once all that is done and out of the way, the real fun begins: creating your own personal space on the internet. Like I said, I had to watch quite a few YouTube videos to get it right. But once you get the hang of it, it’s actually quite fun. When setting up your website, always keep in mind what the visitors are going to see, and how they are going to navigate it. Regardless of the topic/s of your blog, you should divide the posts into categories, to make it easy to find. So if you’re doing a blog about food, split up the recipes into Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Dessert, etc. I’m obviously doing a few unrelated topics, so I divided them into Travel, Fitness, Beauty, etc.
Another great tip on how to start your own blog: look at how others are doing it, preferably well established blogs. That doesn’t mean you should copy what they are doing. But to take inspiration from it, or maybe identify what you DON’T want to do with your blog. So for example, I find too many pictures quite overwhelming. I prefer a small picture above the headline, so you instantly know what the blog post is about. But of course, you do you.
5. Write, write, write
Tip #5 on how to start your own blog: practice makes perfect. And for that reason, write as much as you can. Play around with different styles, topics, etc. There is no right or wrong way, it’s your blog, you can do whatever you want with it. You also don’t have to publish all of the drafts you’ve written. If you’re not happy with it, fix or delete it. Nobody will ever know. And I think it can be so therapeutic and cathartic to just write down some stuff.
My first post was a little introduction to the blog (read here), telling the reader who I am, what they can expect from the blog, etc. I found that a lot easier than to go straight in with a post about traveling.
I think it also makes sense to schedules set days of the week you want to publish your work. For me, those are Tuesdays and Saturdays, 5 pm. If you’ve got the time and creative capacity, you could post more often. Or, if this is simply a hobby for you, just post once every two weeks. Just make sure it’s quality over quantity, because readers can tell whether your heart is in it or not. You don’t just want to publish something for the sake of it.
6. Ditch the perfectionism mindset
And the last, but probably most important tip on how to start your own blog: ditch the perfectionism mindset. If you don’t want to launch your blog before it is absolutely perfect, you’re never going to do it. I made a million changes to my website after launching it. And as you do it and get more experienced with blogging, you’re going to adapt your site to what you need. Once again, practice makes perfect. Don’t let perfectionism hold you back! Make mistakes and learn from them.
I hope this post helped you with starting your own blog. Wishing you good luck and most importantly: a lot of fun with it!
Lots of Love,
Lena
Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored.