Hello, beautiful people! Are you ready to start your successful blog in 2017? Well, I am going to share three tips for my beginners. Hopefully, they are helpful and will bring tons of success your way! Let’s begin, shall we?
Tip #1 Start. Now. I know you’re like well how? First, you need to decide what platform you are going to blog on. There are so many out there like Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, Squarespace and etc. When I started blogging six years ago, I started on Blogger. Well actually, I started blogging before blogging was cool. I started on LiveJournal years ago! Years later, I closed that account and started on Blogger in 2011. All in all, I love Blogger because it is easy to navigate and easy to follow. The only downfall is you are limited to certain things so I decided to switch to WordPress.
With WordPress, it’s either .com or .org. WordPress.com is simple as well but personally, I didn’t like it. Although WordPress.org is very technical, once you get the hang of it, it’s amazing. It’s so much better and you are to control a lot of things behind the scenes. In order to have WordPress.org, you must self-host. Self-hosting means you have to buy a hosting system to control the behind the scenes technicalities. I was with GoDaddy at first but I switched over to Bluehost in 2015. It was the best decision ever and I scored a great deal with them. If you want me to do a separate post going in-depth about self-hosting, SEO, and other technical things, I would be glad to!
Tip #2 What is your blog going to be about? As others like to say, “Find your niche.” I know this is a hard one because you may be passionate about something but feel like everyone is doing it. I totally get you but if you are passionate about something, you pursue it anyway no matter what. There is a reason you are passionate about it but you have to stand out and be different even if it seems like 50,000 people are doing it.
I am passionate about a lot of things but more so hair care, traveling and fashion. You will see more post about those things and other topics here and there. I don’t want my blog to be limited to one thing. I want it to be a go-to blog for whatever. As stated, whatever you have on your heart and feel the need to share, put it out in the atmosphere and see what happens. You will never know unless you try so do it!
Tip #3 Monetize yo’ ish! I’m serious! When I started blogging, there was no such thing as making money or anything. Now, people are making six figures on their blogs alone! Not only from monetization but from sponsorships, ebooks, and other online outlets. Even if you are just starting out, close this page, go sign up for Google AdSense and get your coins.
I know you are probably thinking ‘well bloggers that are just starting will not make money.’ Well, my friend, you are in for surprise. And on the flipside, you don’t want to want to have a successful blog posts that go viral and gets thousands or millions of views. If your blog is not monetized, you will miss out on a chance to get paid all because you weren’t prepared. So yes, you may be starting out, but it’s better to be prepared and setting the tone than not to be.
If you want your blog to be a success, you have to treat it as such. Of course, do your research and make sure you have all of the knowledge you need before actually starting. But if you want your blog to be successful or you have dreams of collaborating with brands, blogging full-time and making money off of it, you have to set the tone and have that mindset from the beginning. There is nothing wrong with having high hopes and dreams for your craft. But don’t let money be the motive behind your success either. Do it because you are passionate about your craft then the monetary blessing will follow naturally.
That’s the beauty of the journey. You’re going to go through a process and a dry season of nothing but you can’t give up. You have to keep pushing, keep learning and most importantly, keep blogging. As someone who has been blogging for years and still learning new things, I can say I have high hopes for my blog. This has been my baby before blogging was the “it” thing. I am learning every day because you can never know too much. But this time around, now that I know better, I am going to do better.
So I hope these tips were helpful. I have more but for those who want to start this year and need that little push to start, I hope this could help. Don’t be weary if things don’t happen overnight or as fast as you would like. It doesn’t happen that way. Keep in mind your favorite blogger probably started in 2009 and here you are starting in 2017. Don’t compare their chapter 9 to your introduction. Consistency, patience, and knowledge will get you there in due time. So trust the journey, enjoy the journey and don’t you dare give up!