Want To Start A Blog But Is Blogging For You And What Is Involved

So you like the idea to start a blog of your own? Welcome to the most exciting, scariest, rewarding and unpredictable world of blogging. I’ve been blogging for the over 9 years and its the best thing I have ever done and still wake up excited to do every day.

Blogging has changed and evolved quite a bit over the past years and no longer as simple as writing a post and hey presto lots of readers and fans. It’s no longer a case of just build it and they will come. Blogging is also widely misunderstood so let’s get some home truths out the way.

It’s not a get rich thing.   You can earn but it will probably be slow and gradual and will be lots of work.

It’s not that easy but then it’s not complicated either.

It can be just a hobby that you fiddle away on in the evening in spare ours. It can be a part-time thing that gets you up a few hours earlier before your day job and what you continue to do after your day job or it can be your full-time thing. Yes you can earn from it, yes it can be a realistic amount to support yourself and yes it will take work and time.

But first is blogging for you? Let’s have a quick overlook of what can be involved in blogging and see if you’re still nodding enthusiastically at the end.

There are things like having a niche. You might have heard of that. The general opinion is that a blog will do better if you niche it right down. But there are blogs that haven’t niched it down and they have done just as well. You might know what you want to blog about already or you might have to do some brainstorming to work it out. Its need to be something you are really passionate about so that you enjoy what you are doing. If you have an idea what you want to blog about can you think of about 50 blog post titles off the top of your head? If yes that good that’s about a year’s worth of posts sorted. If no maybe you’re not as passionate about the subject as you could be.

You will need a blog name and the domain to go with it. Think simple, don’t complicate it or try and make it smart. A potential reader wants to know what your blog is about not that you managed to make a humungous anagram out of the kids and pets names.

You will also need somewhere for your blog to hang out, a platform. You might have heard of a few like WordPress, Blogger, and Squarespace. I recommend WordPress as its the most widely used which means there is more than enough resources out there if you get stuck or drop me a line and I can help you. Though I do recommend WordPress.org instead of WordPress.com. The .com is all totally free and you would have WordPress in your URL but is kind of limiting. This is ok if your blog is just for Great Aunt Ethel to catch up with your family news. But if you want your blog to earn money and for brands to take you seriously its best to bite the bullet at the start and go with WordPress.org, especially when prices start at £2.75 per month with a recommended host like Siteground

You will need to promote your blog via social media. Its been a long since you could just write a post and readers would just magically turn up. Now we have the wonders of social media where your readers hang out.

Then, of course, there is the actual writing of blog posts. You don’t have to a degree in writing, just a passion for your subject. If you have a passion for your subject or if you know your stuff inside out it will be so much easier for you to write your posts and engage readers.

Posts with images attract more readers so you will need to be able to use a camera to create images for your posts. And then there is the graphics that make your social media posts pop. So you could do with getting jiggy with something like Canva.

So how is this all sounding so far? Still interested?

Oh and then there is the money side which I am sure you are dying to hear about. Yes, there is money to be earned in blogging but it doesn’t have to happen overnight. You need to be consistent with good, better than good, ridiculously helpful blog posts. Show up in social media and be all over it. How you monetize your blog will somewhat govern how quickly you start to earn money but ultimately it will be your blog posts that determine it.

If your still dizzily excited to start blogging there is a list of good resources on the blogging resources page.