Welcome to Wondering Wednesdays, a weekly post to learn more about me and other bloggers 🙂 If you’re a blogger, please join in every week!
Today’s questions is –  How do I start a blog?
This is a question that I see a lot of on social media – How Do I Start a Blog?
Let me start by sharing a secret. Are you ready? Listen up.
Blog for you!
What do I mean by that? Don’t start a blog because you feel like you have something to prove, want to make a ton of money, or because someone told you to. Blog for you. Blog because you have something you want to write about – be it book reviews, devotionals, lifestyle tips, cooking tips, or whatever. Do not stress about followers or comments. I think bloggers that concentrate on that too much, don’t write from the heart. When you write for you, and what’s on your heart, the followers will come. The blog visitors will increase. Trust me on this. I’ve been in a place where I was looking at the numbers – and they were discouraging. Then I received some sound advice from a fellow book blogger. She told me that the minute I started to look at the numbers instead of the content, my content went down hill. And she was 100% right. So I let it go. I don’t have 1 million followers, and that’s ok! I write about things I love.
Okay now onto some tips.
Pick what you’ll be blogging about!
Seems so simple, right? I would suggest really thinking about what you are passionate about. If you’re not passionate about it, you won’t be able to write about it. But take a step even further. Don’t just pick a topic. Think of what you’re going to post, and remember that you will need lots of content unless you only plan on ever having one blog post. Let’s say your wheelhouse is photography. Are you just going to share pictures, are you going to share tips, or are you going to post tutorials, etc… Do you have enough content to keep your blog going for years to come!? Hopefully the answer is yes!! And try to really hone in on an area. I’m a book blogger mostly. If all of a sudden I started posting recipes on my blog, my readers would probably sit there scratching their heads. I try to make everything somehow book related. Be it a review, an author interview, a book spotlight, or even a short devotion. If you have content that is all over the place, your readers will just be confused and probably less likely to follow what you’re doing.
Once you have your content figured out, it’s time to pick a blog name. Choose something that will kind of give readers a clue about what you’re blogging about. Or use something that easily connects the blog to you. I’ll admit I wasn’t very creative thinking of A Baker’s Perspective. Basically, it stands for me (Jessica Baker) sharing my perspective on the books I am reading. That’s it. Of course with a common word like baker, some people may thinking it’s a baking blog. I probably should have thought about that from the get go. But, I didn’t choose my last name lol, so we’re sticking with it!
Find a host
Next you need to find a host. There are so many different places you can start a blog these days, some free, some not. Everyone has their own preference. I started with WordPress when I started my blog almost six years ago. (Wow, six years already. Sorry I just need to pause and let that sink in a little bit) In my opinion, it is the most user friendly. I know friends who use Blogger or even Wix. I just didn’t have success with them when I tested the waters. But do your research! Find out what works for you. Also, I ended up switching my hosts throughout the years. I started with the free WordPress, and decided I really wanted to have my own domain. An author friend of mine recommended a great host – Charlottezweb. Jason was fabulous to work with switching me from WordPress to my own domain. He answered my million questions and got me set up. The best part was that I was still able to work with WordPress, which I loved.
Then I found I wanted even more. I wanted more space, more options, and a better theme for my site. Nosegraze is my current site host and I could not be happier. Ashley was so amazingly wonderful to me. Pulling everything over, loading in cool features to my blog, and getting my new theme ready. She was kind, patient, and so very helpful. Her theme options are beautiful, and so easy to make your own. She does have a few things that are geared towards book bloggers, which is probably why I fell instantly in love with what she had to offer. But she has other cool stuff to and I highly suggest checking her out!!
Choose a theme
I’m not going to lie, this is going to be hard. I don’t have a big eye for design, so early on in my blogging career I went pretty simple. It worked, but I didn’t love it. Have I mentioned Nosegraze!? Yeah I love her themes lol. Anyways, my suggestion to you here is to do some research. Google different blogs that are in your topic area and check out their layouts. See if you find any that really speak to you. Most blogs have a note at the very bottom of their blog telling where their theme came from. You can typically click on it to take you to the website where they purchased it so you can check it out for yourself.
The sky is the limit here. There are so many free options, or paid options. You just need to figure out what works best for you and is going to show your content in the way that you want it to. Once you choose your theme you can start making it your own by changing colors, fonts, and playing with all the settings. Feel free to reach out to fellow bloggers for tips and advice. I have found the blogging world to be extremely helpful!
Start blogging!
Once you have your website built it’s time to post your content! Make sure to reread before you post. Use pictures (and make sure you note where they came from if necessary) to spice it up. Play with fonts, colors, and make it exciting! Share your blog posts on social media. Try to join some Facebook groups that pertain to your blog. Make some friends, and just share your heart.
Yes, there are other things to think about like SEO, newsletters, and all that stuff. But honestly, I would’t worry about that right from the get go. Get your feet wet first. Also, SEO is so confusing to me. I am not the best person to teach you on that lol. But if you do learn, please come back and share with me so I understand!!
Well there you have it my friends. My thoughts on starting a new blog. For seasoned bloggers, do you have any tips for starting a blog? Share them in the comments!
For those of you who don’t have a blog, is there more information you’d be interested in having me talk about? I’d love to do some more posts pertaining to the “how-tos” of blogging if you’d like.
To find out more information on this weekly post, or to submit a question for a future post, please visit Wondering Wednesdays. If you’re a blogger, please connect by leaving a link to your blog post in the comments! I’m looking for more questions for future posts, so please be sure to use the google form and ask away!