How to start your own blog - Writing Wednesday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
Now that I kind of have a breadth of knowledge about blogging, after doing it for a few years now, I thought it would be a great time to give you some tips about how to start your own blog because if this is something that you really want to do, you'll find that it's actually quite easy to create your own website. I hope you find these simple and easy tips helpful!
- Before you go onto doing anything, I think that it's a really good idea to come up with a few ideas about what you want your blog to be about. Do you want it to be about life like mine or do you have other interests that you wish to share? Your blog can be about writing stories, your pets and looking after animals, your favourite sport, books, your favourite films, photography, coding, learning languages etc, etc, etc. Your blog can be about anything just as long as you find your own niche of something you really enjoy doing, the right audience that you want to have will come to you.
- Next, it's a good idea to find the right platform that you want to blog on. If you're not that great at coding like I am, I would recommend using the platform that I am using right now which is Blogger. Blogger does have an HTML5 coding section that you can use if you want to personalise anything on your page but if that doesn't suit you like me, you can just write things easily on the word document section and publish it as is. There are also templates that you can use to customise your blog without doing any coding so the use of this platform is really easy. However, if you want something a little bit more professional looking than this, I would suggest using the WordPress platform since although it doesn't completely use coding, it still uses it a lot more within the document you're writing which means you can add more personal touches to your posts and your website. Another great platform is Squarespace, which many influencers use to create classy and beautiful websites as well. Just remember that some of these platforms are not free like Blogger so just do your research before committing to one site.
- When you're writing your blog posts make sure your in a nice and comfortable space and that the posts you're writing are meaningful and entertaining for your readers. You want to be in an environment that makes writing easy for you so that could be your bedroom, office, or kitchen table. Basically anywhere that is calm enough to start writing. Remember to stick to your niche and write posts with a similar style because structure for your readers is really important as it allows you to retain your audience. Always look over your work to check it's also as grammatically accurate as possible and respectful to your targeted audience.
- If you want to use any images for your blog you can either take your own photos or use photos from a royalty free site. I often get my royalty free photos for some of my posts from Pixabay because there are a lot of images to find and they're free to download. You don't have to attribute the creator of the photo but they also leave a link to their account if that is something you want to do. Another site is Flickr and they offer photos of celebrities and well-known people and places that other users have individually taken themselves so it's down to the creator to make it suitable for public use if they want to. Here you can also download these images for free but you may have to attribute the creator. This just makes sure that there is no copyright infringement. I also like to link back to the channel of any YouTube videos I use to shout them out, even if the video is already embedded into the post. When you're also refering to another article, remember to use quotation marks and write as much of the post in your own words.
- Next, I would recommend promoting your posts on social media like Instagram or Facebook because this allows you to reach a wider audience. It also allows people to get to know you more, which could help to bring more traffic to your blog as well!
- Lastly, I'm sure you'll get plenty of positive feedback on your blog but it's also important to have a system in place in response to negative and unconstructive criticism. If someone is being blatantly mean in the comments it's important to delete the message and not respond to it. You might even want to approve the comments on your posts before they are published so that other users don't see any bad language used as well. This makes the reading process for your audience more enjoyable and blogging more enjoyable for you as well!
I hope these tips were helpful and that they motivated you to start your own blog. If you want to find out more about blogging, I would recommend reading through Shane Birley's book How To Be A Blogger and Vlogger In 10 Easy Lessons. I got this for my birthday a few years ago and my tips are inspired by a lot of the things mentioned in the book so I would recommend reading this as well. It also has tips for starting YouTube if you're interested in that too.
If you have something to say or a talent you would like to show, don't hesitate to start blogging, it's a great way to promote yourself and your views. It may seem difficult but trust me, once you start you'll learn really quickly. You'll never look back!
Do you have a blog? Do you have any other tips? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
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See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
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