How to Start a Blog: The First Five Tips

Hi there and thanks for joining me today!  Perhaps you’ve found this page from a Google search or Pinterest, or perhaps you’ve been one of my longtime blog readers since 2010.  You also may be somewhere in between those things and no matter how you got here, I am glad you’re here and ready to dive into one of my favorite topics: Blogging! And to be more specific, How to Start a Blog and my First Five Tips to get it going.

I am asked all the time about how to start a blog, how to find your voice, how to grow a following, and even how to turn a blog into a side income or full on business! I’ve always taken the time to answer questions any of you send over, but those questions were becoming so frequent that I realized the best way to make sure I was answering everyone and providing the best resources possible is to put it right here on the blog!

To give you some background on my relationship with blogging, I have been blogging since 2010.  I started my first blog, Bess Be Fit, a few months after I graduated college because I wanted to document my passion for living a healthy lifestyle with food & fitness.  I kept that blog going for approximately three and a half years or so, and had over 2.5 million page views in that time.  I experienced a big shift in my life around 2014 when I decided to move to Charlotte on my own. I wanted a separation from a lot of the negative things that I had experienced in my life (mainly a breakup that I wanted to move on from and never look back if I’m being honest!), because I had documented every little aspect in those blog posts.  I was at a turning point in my life and I wanted a fresh start.  So I took about a 6 month hiatus from blogging, decided I missed it SO MUCH and started to brainstorm how to start again.  (If you’re wondering, YES I really regret letting my old domain go and losing that readership. I thought I was going to be done with blogging but little did I know my life would come back to it.  We live and we learn!!)

Enter my second blog, The Fit Fave. Long story short, I wanted this one to be a mix of fitness and style, but I never truly felt at home with it.  I re-evaluated what and how I wanted to share my life and I wanted to open it back up to my readers like I had with Bess Be Fit. So, a re-branding of sorts happened very recently with www.bessharringtoncarter.com.  It’s my name and it’s me and I can’t wait for it to grow with me. I’m excited to share my real life again!!

I’ve been through many years and experiences with being a blogger and I can’t wait to share it all with you.

So now back to the point of this post.  Today I am going to share my first five tips on “How to Start a Blog”!! There is just wayyyy more information than I can fit into one blog post, so I am going to make these regular posts, at least one per week on how to get your blog going and make it successful.  People tell me all the time that the “blogosphere is so saturated” and to that I will ALWAYS disagree, because there is no one out there just like ME or just like YOU sharing her story.  And because of that there is nothing already out there that will be exactly what YOU can offer the world.  Remember that!  Being yourself is going to be the heart of everything I teach & preach!!  Let’s get into it!

How To Start a Blog

The First Five Tips

Tip 1:

Figure out what you want to write about. What do you want to share? To explore?  Chances are, you already know the answer to this if you’ve been debating starting a blog.  If not, what are your passions and interests?  Don’t just write about something because you’ve seen others do it.  Find something that you genuinely care about and enjoy.  Do you love to cook? Are you an excellent movie critic?  Do you like to share workouts?  Train for marathons?  Want to share your experiences as a mommy? Whatever the case may be, find what you are passionate about and focus on that.  Don’t just pick something because you think others would like it.  Always remember my biggest tip…being yourself!

Tip 2:

Pick a blog name and platform.  My recommendation here is to go with WordPress*.  There is a free version (wordpress.com) that has limited functionality, but has some upgraded versions there depending on what you need that can allow you to get your feet wet before jumping in.  However, I’m a big fan of just jumping in and getting used to that cold water faster.  I say, if you’re serious about it, let’s just do the dang thing AMIRIGHT? ! I use WordPress.org, which is a self-hosted platform (Bluehost is my hosting platform) because it gives me total control over design, aesthetic, and functionality.  Side note: when I got The Fit Fave back up and running, I did briefly use Squarespace, but ultimately it did not work for me.  Just do your research on what your needs are and if the platform you chose will be able to work for you.  A lot of these sites are intuitive and user-friendly and will walk you through set up, etc., but I am here to help you! More on that soon.  (Not sure if you need wordpress.com or self-hosted wordpress.org? Click here to read more.)  I will say, if you are one day looking to monetize your blog, you need to select the self-hosted wordpress.org option, and then in that case you will want to set up a Bluehost Web Hosting account.  If that all sounds like Greek to you, no worries. I will dive more in depth in subsequent posts.

*Since I have really only ever been on WordPress, any of my future posts will be in relation to a WordPress blog and how to start it and use the platform. It’s my recommendation and I will be here to help you!

Tip 3:

Establish a posting schedule.  You need to post regularly, but that doesn’t mean you have to post every single day.  You just need to be consistent.  Find a routine that works for you so your readers will know when to expect content from you.  This will also help you know what content you need to be creating when you aren’t actually blogging (taking pictures, making mental notes of experiences to share later, etc.)

Tip 4:

Create coordinating social media accounts.  I’ll dive more into growing those later, but establishing your presence on social media is a great way to get traffic to your site.  You can use your blog name, or your real name, but definitely pick one or the other and be consistent across the board so you are recognizable and synonymous with your blog and social media accounts.  So, for example, I am @besshcarter on Instagram, @besshcarter on Twitter, @besshcarterblog on Facebook, and @besshcarter on Pinterest.  This is just my personal preference to be easier to make connections for readers and followers.  Then you want to be sure to link your blog URL on all of your social sites!! It’s a simple opportunity to get a new follower on social media to click onto your blog and become a reader.

Tip 5:

Write your first post!! This is SO EXCITING!  Introduce yourself and your blog.  Dive right in!  I will be sharing another post soon on the “Elements of a Good Blog Post” to give you some direction, but the best experience in this case is to just start. It’s fun, you’ll see 🙂  And even more than that, it has become not only a passion of mine but a side hustle that allows me extra income. I’m not saying you should start a blog to make money, but I’m saying it’s possible to do so and I plan to share more on that in future posts if it’s something you’re trying to do.  (Sorry Mom, I hope you don’t think it’s tacky I’m talking about money, but I wanna help my sistas out!) Remember my favorite quote, friends: “A candle loses nothing from lighting another candle.”

So that’s it for now, but I do have more for ya…

Want my “Starting a Blog Basic Checklist”?

All you have to do is join my email list and I will automatically send you the checklist to getting started.  Simply click here to get on the list and I’ll send ya the checklist!  For all you blogger babes and girl bosses in the making already subscribed to my email, check your inboxes tonight, I’ll be sending it!

More to come, and please leave me any questions in the comments!!

xo,

Bess