How To Start A Blog – Top Tips For Aspiring Bloggers

Thinking of how to start a blog but doubts you might be lightyears too late? I get it if you think that blogging is no longer a trend. I know because, at one point in history, bloggers have ruled the internet with their wits and creative styles. They have inspired young minds with their visions and aspirations put into words. They were these modern days’ influencers but more. Their influence is everything but superficial. Their wisdom was all it took to compel a million followers and start a revolution. They were recognized for their content, a fruit of their dedication and hard work. While most of today’s wannabe bloggers and influencers aim to be famous, seasoned bloggers are to help and inspire. Fulfillment is not just a thousand likes but knowing they have alleviated a situation or a life. In the digital age, bloggers were a thing until Youtube.

There is no denying that Youtube has taken over the internet that the blogging world is now forever changed. This is not at all surprising since watching a video is a lot easier and visually stimulating than to read through a thousand words which doesn’t just require comprehension but lots of imagination as well. With Youtube, it doesn’t take much to be a star. Anyone who can create a video, may it be educational, cinematic or merely entertaining, can make it. Not only is Youtube easier but the pay is also great. It is for this reason that some notable bloggers were quick to jump into the Youtube wagon and I can’t blame them. Especially those who have already made blogging into a living. Today, what remains of the blogging world are those who still believe in the power of writing and those who love it and are passionate about it. If you happen to be one of us and are thinking of starting your own blog, then read on.

Starting a blog is not as easy as you think. It is more than just creating content and throwing it into the open. It requires certain things like a goal or a mission, some kind of direction in which you’re taking your blog. Putting anything and everything into it is a recipe for disaster. It could be otherwise but requires ten times the work. I’m no expert in blogging yet, nor do I have solid credentials to be blabbing about it. But what I’m about to share with you is based on my experience as a travel blogger and everything I have learned from when I was starting my blog. So here are a few pointers that some of you newbies might find useful.

The first thing you’ll need to consider when starting a blog is to think whether or not you really want it. Blogging will require a lot of your time, focus and energy. You have to determine how much of your time or how much work you are willing to put into it. You have to establish whether it is just going to be a hobby or something you plan on investing on more in the future. If you are starting a blog hoping to earn from it then I must tell you that you’re going for a difficult path and you have probably given up before earning your first dollar. Being able to decide whether or not blogging is something you really want early on will save you from wasting your time, energy, and money. I mean who would want to invest so much in something halfheartedly, right? In blogging, it’s all or nothing.

Now that you’ve figured you really want to blog, it’s time that you determine what you are going to put on it. It’s easy to throw everything in one blog but unless you are an expert of everything, it will never work out. You have to limit your blog into one or two categories/niche. These categories should easily coincide with each other like travel and photography, lifestyle and fashion or gaming and technology. There is no way in hell you can work around gaming and travel right? It should also be one of your expertise or something that you really love to do. This way it will be easier for you to come up with topics to write about and to sustain your blog in the long run.

Choosing a name is the trickiest part of starting a blog. A lot of factors will have to be considered. It’s easy to come up with a name but the question is, “how many people in the blogging community are already using it?” You have to resort to google and other resources to know whether or not a name is already in use. You can use your own name but depending on the blogging platform you will be using, it might not work out. When I was thinking of a name for my blog, I tried not to be too generic. More so, I chose a name that is unique to me and my character. When choosing a name, think of that one thing that is totally you without deviating so much from what you wanna talk about in your blog.

In the early days of the internet, Blogger, Tumblr and WordPress were the only way to go if you wanna create a blog. But this time, you have one too many options. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have become one of the best platforms for new bloggers. Out of these three, Facebook offers the most freedom. It allows upload of unlimited photos and 60000+ characters or more than 2000 words for a caption. If you don’t have any idea on how to go about Blogger and WordPress yet but are too eager to start your blog, Facebook should do it. You can either use your own personal profile or create a Facebook page. This will also make establishing your audience in the long run easier.

A Facebook page may help you establish your brand in the beginning but you will eventually want to have your own site to make it look more personal and professional. For starters, you can take advantage of the free blogging platforms like Blogger, Wix and WordPress. I personally recommend WordPress as it is easy to use and provides many options for customization. There will be a lot of things you’ll need to think of as you go deeper into your blogging journey. Things like your own domain, hosting service and whatnot but for now, focus on the basics. Although, if you decide to go with WordPress, you will be able to narrow your hosting options because you only need to look at the best WordPress hosting providers. You can make use of the internet to learn and read tutorials. As much as I want to discuss it here, that will be another topic for later.

If you have decided to use Facebook at first, customization should be easy. You will only need to think of uploading a profile and cover photo. The profile photo could be your blog’s icon or your photo itself whichever suits you. The cover photo could be an image with the name of your blog, a brief description and your social media handles. Customizing a blog in free blogging platforms however requires more work. You will work on putting in the details about your blog first like the title and description. You will also have to set a free domain name which could just be similar to the title of your blog. Then you will choose a theme and tweak that theme into your preferred looks and feels. You will need to set the colors, font style, background, header image, etc.

There will be so much freedom in this part of the process of creating a blog but make sure to consider your style and taste firsthand when designing your blog to avoid making changes from time to time which might keep you from focusing on things that really matter. You might want to study some of your favorite bloggers’ website to get an idea. You can also draw an outline of what you want your blog would look like on a paper and try to incorporate it once you are already working on the actual platform. .

Once you have gone through your blog’s customization, the next important thing to do is to create your About page. If you’re using Facebook, you can create a note to discuss what your blog is all about, what your goals are or plans for the future. You can highlight your note for the viewers of your page to see. In blogging platforms such as WordPress, you will have to create a page. This page will be one of the most important parts of your blog and should be put on the header and footer along with the other important pages. Your about page should explain your blog, what it does, what you plan to do and the people behind it. You can include a brief story of your blogging journey and other stuff that will make people understand you and your blog more.

Once you have created your About page and other important pages such as the Author’s and Contact Me pages, you can go ahead and publish your very first post. Note that a blog page and post are different. I will not elaborate on this but when publishing articles, you always have to use the post instead of a page. The ideal length of a blog article is 1500 words and more but for starters, you can go for 800-1000 words. The key to a successful blog is consistency. You should publish at least one post in a week to keep your blog active. The reason for this could be the least of your concern at first but is going to be crucial once you decide to monetize your blog. I will be discussing this in my future articles but for now, focus on publishing a post on a regular basis. Keep in mind though that quality is still a priority over quantity so make each of your content with much value as possible.

I hope you found this article useful. If I miss anything, feel free to let me know in the comments. I will appreciate all your inputs and will use it to better my blogging as well. I will be writing more about my blogging journey in my future posts so stay tuned. Until next time. Ciao!