Happy National President Joke Day! I know, randomest holiday ever, right?? Guess what? I actually have a presidential joke for you: Q-What do you get when you cross the 16th president of the USA with and Gorilla? A-Ape Lincoln! Well, these days it seems like there is a holiday for everything! 🙂 But that actually has NOTHING to do with today’s post. Today’s post is about 7 tips and tricks you need to know to start a blog. These are tips that I personally wish I had (I had a few of them, but you’re lucky, because you have them all!)
- Have a name. Ok, so it’s very important that you know what your name for your blog is before you start building your website, as well as your slogan/tagline. That way you can insert those ASAP.
2. Make some starter posts. Before you even open your WordPress account, you should use Google Docs and make 5-10 starter posts so that you have good content off the bat, so people don’t open your blog and see nothing.
3. Consistency is key. Something to make sure you are ready for is to be consistent with your posting. Try to figure out a schedule of 1-2 times per week to post, and stay consistent with that schedule as much as possible. That way, people know that they’ll get a new post from you on, let’s say, Monday, and then each week they’ll be excited for you to post, and may even share your blog with their friends, but if you start forgetting to post, then they’ll probably stop even going to your blog.
4. Design. Make sure to keep your design simple and clean. People’s heads are gonna start hurting if you use one of those crazy color palates that they have in the Customizer. Try and use basic black and white, and maybe add a pop of color with photos in each post, or a few photos in the sidebar of you with a mini-bio. Also, don’t color your post pages. People (like me) will have a hard time reading it if the back round is a bright neon color, or if your text is colorful. It’s just not super appealing.
5. Make content people want to read. Especially when you are staring out, make content you know people want to read. In order to do that, you also need to know what kind of people you want to reach. If you want to reach little kids, don’t post about YA books you read. If you want to reach, let’s say, girls from 10-18, then ask a friend, older sister, or older cousin what kind of posts they’d want to read. Another thing I do sometimes is look around other blogs, or Pintrest for ideas. But (Tip #6) make sure you are staying original, so don’t copy someones post, but try to spin it into something that fits your blog even more than the other blogger’s post.
6. Stay original. Yes, I know I just said to go search around other blogs for inspiration, but make sure to twist it into your own, so it fits YOUR blog to a T, or ask the other blogger for permission to use their post idea. But sometimes, you can just get inspo from just reading other’s posts and get totally different ideas. But bottom line: If you like an idea that another blogger did, change it up a bit, or add another idea of yours to it to make it original to YOU.
7. Insert yourself into the blogging community and don’t be afraid to make friends!This is actually really important. While I was working on building my website, I went on my WordPress Reader, and looked up teen girl blogs. I actually found a ton and followed all of them. I emailed multiple of those girls while I was building my blog, (Shoutout to Emma @BookishDaughtersOfTheKing and Sophia @ATeenGirlWithThoughts–Totally go and look their blogs up right now!) and they actually explained a few things to me and were a few of my first followers!! Also, even after you’ve launched your blog, it’s important to invest in the blogging community, like and comment on similar bloggers stuff, and sometimes you can even get yourself a spot on their favorite blogs page! But it also gets you out there, and if others read your comment, then maybe they’ll tap on you and get sent to your blog!
Well, I hope those tips were helpful to those of you who have blogs and/or want to start one!! Feel free to contact me at any time for help, questions, or even if you just want to chat!
-Mayim
