How to Start a Blog

It’s very exciting to brainstorm and think about starting your own blog. You may have thousands of thoughts and ideas running through your head, but don’t get ahead of yourself. It’s important to figure out the most important things first! With these simple steps, you will be on your way to creating a wonderful blog, that brings you and your audience joy and creates a unique community. 

1. Decide on a host. There are many host websites out there. I was recommended to use Weebly, and it is very user friendly. Wordpress is probably the most popular host. Play around with a couple of options and see which one seems the easiest to you. You will be working with the site constantly so make sure you are happy with its functions. 
2. Think about your focus. Most bloggers have a certain niche that they center most of their blog posts around. If you don’t know exactly what you want to focus your blog on, don’t let that stop you from creating content. 
3. Create a title for your blog. Make the name of your blog catchy and something that is relevant to you! 
4. Brand it. This is the part that takes the most thought and time. Create a logo that goes with the brand you’re trying to create. Create a short summary (one or two sentences). Think of this as the pitch for your blog. Put this on your blog’s home page.  Make it good…this will most likely be the first thing your viewers will see when they visit your blog site. 
5. Write, write, write. Before you do anything or make anything public, write! Make sure you have a number of blog posts written and ready to publish before you make your blog live. The first couple weeks, and even months that your blog is active you will need to focus on branding and building an audience. Unless you are prepared to drop your schoolwork and work life, don’t leave yourself with the responsibility of writing and branding when you first start. 
6. Get social. Make an Instagram, Facebook page and Twitter account for your blog (at the very least). You can create a Pinterest initially as well if you’re feeling ambitious. Complete your social media profiles, post a picture on them that successfully summarizes your brand, and begin the process of creating a relevant following.
7. Take pictures. Humans have an attention span close to that of a gold fish. Your pictures need to catch their attention! Make sure you have great quality (visually appealing) pictures to go with each of the blog posts you have written. Take extra pictures of what you are shooting. You will want to promote the same blog post more than once so having just one picture for each post will not be enough.  
8. Publish your page. The moment has come for you to make your blog site live! This process was really nerve-wracking for me and I felt like I suddenly had a million things to do. Try to avoid that by scheduling social media posts. Once you make your site active, chances are, until you tell people, people won’t be looking for anything.  Post on your social media site that your blog is active and share the link of your beautiful new blog. Post on all of your blog’s social media sites that the blog site is now live. Share it anywhere you can. Put the link to your blog in your blog’s Instagram “website” section and in your twitter about section. ***Make sure you think about timing here. Don’t announce to the world that your blog website is active at 2:15 p.m. on a Monday. Late afternoon and evenings are the best time for this. 
9. Timing is everything. Get your first blog post published the same day you publish your site, or quickly the day after.  People will remember your name the more they see it, so get that first post out in front of them quickly after the exciting news that your site is up and running. 
10. Continue to write, brand and grow your social media presence. 

P.S. I would love to check out your blogs! Provide your blog link and e-mail address in the comments below.