Best Tips For New And Aspiring Bloggers
Starting a blog is one of the best decisions that you’ll make. Despite the chaos and uncertainties that surround us, blogging will help divert your energy on the other facets of life. If you need a creative distraction, a marketing tool to your business or a possible online venture, I invite you to give blogging a try. As for me, it has renewed my love for writing and my desire to do something I love full-time.
What Is Blogging
In its simplest form, blogging is a means to document your thoughts or ideas on a certain topic in a website that you may or may not own. It can serve as a journal of your life or a compilation of the different aspects of your chosen niche. You can organize it whichever way you want though a visually appealing structure can provide a more satisfying experience to your readers.
Why You Haven’t Started Or Launched Your Blog
If you’ve been wanting to start a blog but have been unable to, there are a few possible reasons that come to mind:
No Defined Niche
You might not have a clear idea of what you’re going to blog about so you prolong the time to start your blog. On the other hand, you might have several topics in mind which makes it harder for you to decide. Either way, you’re never going to be able to launch a blog if you don’t start somewhere.
Procrastination
If you’ve been wanting to start your own blog for the longest time but life gets in the way, you’re not alone. You might have been meaning to create your blog for a couple of months or years now but have not been able work on it. A common excuse is that you have a job to attend to during the day and other obligations at home at night. That will go on for months and months until you realize that you’ve barely made a dent on your to-do list to finally be able to launch your blog.
Lack of Focus
It’s also so easy to get offtrack. You’d subscribe to several bloggers and avail of their freebies whether they be ebooks or online courses. Shortly after, you’d avail of their paid products and go through it while taking notes. Unfortunately, those notes would often just stay in the notebook and will never see the light of day.
Oftentimes, you’d get distracted and buy another related course then go through the same process as the previous one. Before you know it, you’ve bought a couple of books and courses but you still haven’t built and launched your blog. Trust me, I know the feeling.
Common Blogging Misconceptions
Another reason that beginners get stuck is when they believe blogging misconceptions that they’ve read somewhere or that they’ve somehow assumed. I’ve listed a few of these faulty impressions and have provided my insights on why you shouldn’t accept them as truths:
Money Comes Easy After Blogging For A Short While.
Blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Many of us, that are caught with the blogging bug, assume that we can earn hefty money overnight just by slapping our site with ads and affiliate links. On the contrary, ROI may take a while so persistence is key. Established bloggers will tell you that it took a lot of time, effort and money before they were able to reap the monetary benefits of their blogging venture.
You Have To Be An Expert Of Your Niche To Succeed In Blogging.
At the start, you don’t have to be an “authority” in your chosen niche though it pays to have more experience than your target readers. Just like any other major endeavor, blogging is a journey with its own ups and downs, twists and turns. You’ll have to continuously aim to learn everything there is to learn about your niche so you can add them to your stock of knowledge. After a considerable amount of time, you’ll be able to earn your place in your niche as an “expert”.
No One Is Interested In What You Have To Say Or Write.
Remember that every well-known personality, whether online or not, started from 0 subscribers/followers. It is only with persistence and consistency that they’ve gained their huge followings. No one is famous from the start. For as long as you’re able to hone in on your niche, you’ll be able to grow your group of supporters and your blog as a whole eventually.
Best Tips For New And Aspiring Bloggers
There is a list of things that you’ll need to do when starting a blog and there are also those that you might think that you need to do but you actually don’t have to specially when you’re just new at this. I’ve cited a few of them here.
Don’t Take The Foundation Of Your Blog Lightly
Though I would recommend creating your blog in WordPress, there are still 2 versions of it and it’s important that you choose the one that fits your goal so that you’ll avoid unnecessary rework later on.
WordPress.org
If your ultimate goal is to use your blog as a marketing tool to grow your brick and mortar or online business or to turn it into your actual business, then I highly recommend creating one through wordpress.org. You’ll have to invest on your domain name and hosting plan at the very least but you’ll have the liberty of customizing your blog any which way you want using add-on applications or plugins.
WordPress.com
If your main motivation is just to have some sort of an online journal about your chosen topics and you have no intention of monetizing your blog, then you can create one in wordpress.com. Though you won’t have to purchase a domain name or hosting plan, you’ll have to pay a fee if you want to use add-ons. You’ll also be assigned a domain name that will look like this – yourdomain.wordpress.com – unless you want a custom name for a fee.
Talk To Someone But Not Everyone
Successful bloggers will tell you that you need to choose your target audience and focus on how you can help them solve their problems through your blog. Don’t set your sights on everyone’s needs because you’ll end up not helping out anyone.
Talk About Something But Not About Everything
Limit your blog to 2-4 interrelated categories to really hone in on a niche. Don’t write about anything under the sun, at least when you’re still new. Zone in first then grow from there when you have enough followers who will love your content no matter what it may be.
Don’t Collect But Never Create Something Into Effect
Don’t buy every book or course that you can get your hands on but never implement them. Instead, subscribe to 1 or 2 online personalities with whom you can closely relate to then read their blog content or avail of their paid products that aligns with your niche. Implement the lessons they share as best as you can until you’ve gone through all of them. Do this to increase the likelihood of getting positive results from your hard work.
Don’t Nitpick
Don’t fuss about every design element in your blog. Create your essential pages then focus more on creating content and not tweaking your home page every 2 days. You need to write regularly to find your voice and to figure out what your main niche will be. You can always change the layouts of your blog’s pages and posts later on when you’ve built enough content.
Don’t Imitate But Rather Innovate
Don’t pick a niche just because your favorite blogger has succeeded in it. If you’re not genuinely interested in a topic, you won’t be able to endure the rigorous task of building content for it on your blog for years to come. Look into what truly piques your interest and grow from there. If you still think that you need to stick to a financially viable niche though, then find your own twist to the story and not just be a mimic.
Don’t Copy Off of Someone’s Work
Never carbon copy someone’s work and claim it as your own. It will not look good for you in the end. It’s not to say though that you cannot refer to them for motivation. Just never pretend that you originally came up with it. After all, it’s safe to say that we all aim to be an inspiration to others.
Don’t Compare Your Beginning With Someone Else’s Middle
Don’t push yourself too hard when you don’t immediately see results. Give yourself grace. Established bloggers and other personalities will always tell you that there’s no such thing as overnight success. They’ve just learned to endure everything that came their way to get where they are. It applies to all of us so just take it one step at a time. Pause and reflect every once in a while if you have to.
Takeaway
Just like any new challenge in life, blogging is not a walk in the park but it’s worth it if you’re willing to give it a try.You can start your blogging journey by getting my free starting a blog checklist and sharing it with your family and friends who want this adventure as well.
