By Hannah Smith
Blogs are great, if I do say so myself. They open so many doors for you, it is actually unbelievable.
Due to having my blog (Words of Hannah), I have been able to meet the editor of the UK Cosmopolitan magazine, appear on book blog tours and interviewed debuting authors (keep an eye out for the article coming August 7th), and used it to strengthen any applications.
Have I got you hooked yet, rookie?
Good.
Welcome to your quick and easy introduction on starting your very own blog.
But have patience, grasshopper, for constructing your own blog will take time, hard work and dedication. If you think you have these three things — perfect, you are worthy and may continue.
First of all:
Figure out what topic your blog will be about.
At first, I didn’t, so don’t worry if you yet to come up with any ideas.
If this is the case, I suggest that you write for a variety of topics that interest you and see which one calls out to you the most and which one you can write lots about.
But doesn’t this make my audience demographics inconsistent?
Yes, but you aren’t ready for that yet.
I am currently shifting my blog’s focus to books, writing, and anything that relates to those subjects.
But I am certainly not going to delete or unpublish any of those posts that I published before deciding a theme. Hell no! They show what I started as and how I have grown and evolved since then.
Once you have narrowed down your list of topics, try to narrow them down again. To just one.
Yes, that’s right, just one general theme.
And if you really cannot decide, you could always have more than one blog.
Start Planning Your Content.
Well done! You now know what topic your blog is going to be based around, so it’s time to start planning what content you are going to put out on your blog.
Do you have no idea?
Look at other blogs to gather some inspiration.
But DO NOT, and I repeat: DO NOT, copy of their work. That is plagiarism, and it is practically equivalent to sinning.
Here are some blogs that may help you out:
WhatLauraLoves — a lifestyle blogger, with a focus on wellbeing (e.g. mental health)
Hello Freckles — a travel and lifestyle blogger
Another Book In The Wall — a blog focusing on book reviews
Abbiee — the blog of ‘100 Days of Sunlight’ author who blogs about creative writing tips and tricks
If none of the examples that I have listed spike your interest, just do a quick Google search for “*insert the topic of your blog here* blog”.
The correct way to post content.
Okay, so now you have planned some posts and possibly written some too; now, you need to publish them. You need the world to see your art.
But before you click that publish button, pause!
Is everything grammatically correct? Is everything the way it should be? Is this post scheduled?
Scheduling allows you to stagger blog posts over a period of time instead of posting everything all at once. This is actually really great.
Make your schedule known to your audience so they will know when to come back for more. It is super helpful when you can’t find the time to write one week, which means your audience will be left without content–but, oh wait! You have that post from last week that you scheduled to post, Phew, you’re saved! You live to blog another day.
Scheduling also means your audience is not waiting around impatiently for what seems like FOREVER until you finally post something.
Now for the part that you all have been waiting for:
How to build your audience.
You have done well. I am proud, young grasshopper, your patience has paid off.
To build your audience, you must simply do one thing.
You must get your name out there.
Yes, that’s it. But this is a LOT harder than it looks. Trust me.
A few ways you might wish to do this is:
Interview other bloggers/influential figures in your field — their audience will become yours when they are redirected onto your blog post.
Comment on other people’s blogs — I have build Words of Hannah on Blogger, which means when I comment on someone else’s blogger blog, it links to my profile, which has a link to my blog.
Sign up to Bloglovin’ — it is a free and easy platform in which you can discover and read other blogs.
Venture onto other platforms — you will severely limit yourself if you stick to just one social platform. But don’t take on too much too quickly. Only do this when you are ready, though, as you don’t want to overload yourself.
That is all I can teach you. Congratulations, you now know the basics. I look forward to seeing what you and your blog can accomplish.
This is a taster on what my new series ‘So You Want To Be A YouTuber’ will entail.
Do you have your own blog? Let me know in the comments!