Tips for Starting a Blog

So you're thinking of starting a blog.. Why wouldn't you? 
Blogging is a massive part of my life. I love the fact that I can keep all of my thoughts and feelings online up in the cloud. It's a sort of diary to me, an open diary that I can share with other like-minded people and with these people I form great friendships. I don't know them in everyday life, I'll probably never meet them but I love being able to log on to the Internet and chat to them through social networks and of course blogging. 
You may think that you have to be super tech savvy to start up a blog, but you don't.I'm going to share with you some easy tips for starting up your own blog..

Try Blogger.com

Blogger is a very popular blogging service from Google. It's what I use! It is incredibly easy to use and on sign-up will provide you with a range customisable templates for your blog. It has all the tools you need to start blogging including a page to check your stats (page views, pages linking in etc), change your layout (where things are placed on your blog i.e post archives, search box etc), manage google adsense (which blogger give you the option to include on your blog, it basically earns you money for ad clicks) and much much more. Basically, it's just all there. It's a pretty awesome blogging platform. There are others like wordpress but I no nothing about that so I always recommend blogger. But hey the choice is yours!

Choose a catchy blog name that you'll want to stick with

source
Once you decide on your blog name, I'd say from experience it's probably best to stick with it. Otherwise you may end up confusing people and it can muck up blog readers and other things you've signed up to (it confuses them - trust me, it happened to me on a previous blog I had, it was a nightmare to sort out). So try and pick something that catches peoples attention, that is YOUnique and that you are happy to have for the next few years or even longer. If however, you do want to change it after a while, that is totally up to you and CAN be done. 

Get social

I have found that the best way to get people reading your blog is to be social! Sign up to twitter and start using hashtags on your tweets, for example I am what is known as a 'lifestyle' and 'mummy' blogger, the two hashtags I use most often when chatting or promoting my blog are #pbloggers (parent bloggers) and #lbloggers (lifestyle bloggers). Twitter is priceless when it comes to my stats, it's my top traffic source. Also try Instagram if you have an iPhone, I am a bit of an addict myself, you can use the same hashtags on there as you do on twitter to find other bloggers like you. If you're starting a beauty blog, the top hashtag is #bbloggers (beauty bloggers). 
I think one of the best ways to network with other people and get people interested in you and your blog is by commenting on other peoples (that are similar to yours) blogs. You can find similar blogs by using blog readers like bloglovin.com (this is my fave!).

Be YOU, be passionate about what you are blogging about

source
Don't try and be like someone else when you start your blog. Know your voice and know yourself and stick to that. It's your blog, your diary, your space on the Internet, yes you need to keep your readers interested but if they're reading your blog then they are doing that because they are interested in YOU. 
You want to make sure that what your blogging about is your passion, for example, what's the point in blogging about beauty if your crap with make-up i.e. >ME< haha, I tried blogging about beauty it didn't work, it's not my passion. My passion is my family, my baby, my Husband and life in general. I got into the world of Mummy Bloggers when I was 25 weeks pregnant and this is the longest I've stuck at blogging because I have found my place within the blogging world. What I'm trying to say is you should be passionate about what it is your blogging about. I blog about anything and everything and I like that, but at my blogs core is my heart - my baby, my Husband, my cats and my home. 

Blog often 

source
You don't want to blog meaningless posts just for the sake of it, because in the world of blogging I believe that quality is better than quantity but you do want to ensure you're posting often enough to keep your readers coming back and interested. So bear this in mind. 

Design - Keep it simple

source
I personally like blogs that are attractive but simple. I think black text on a white background looks best, it's easy to read. Same with fonts, you want something that's easy enough for your audience to read. Something may look fancy and pretty to you, but is it really practicable for your readers to sit and read?

Submit your blog to search engines

You'll want other people to be able to find your blog easily, so make sure you submit your blog link wherever you can. Start with search engines. Just do a quick google search with the following - 'Submitting my blog link to search engines' and you should find what you're looking for.

Use photographs

source
It's nice to read blog posts that have a least one photograph of good quality to break the text up, so keep this in mind when you blog. Try to make sure the photograph isn't blurry and is relevant to your content. Good photos make a big difference. 

Promote, promote, promote

sourceOnce you start up your blog you'll want to attract people to it. Join Facebook groups relevant to your blog category, for example - I am a member of 'Mummy, beauty and lifestyle bloggers', I use this to find similar blogs but also to share my own blog posts so that others notice them and visit my site. Use the twitter hashtags relevant to your blog but don't over do it, you don't want to spam peoples timelines. 

Don't be afraid to ask

sourceIf you're not sure on something - ask. If you don't ask you wont know. The blogging community on the whole is a friendly place and usually we're all happy to answer any questions. In fact, we all ask eachother questions! I have found every blogger that I've approached with a question completely approachable and totally helpful. So just ask :)
And that concludes my tips for starting a blog!

I hope you have found this somewhat helpful and if you do start your own blog, I wish the very best of luck to you with it! It's such a fun thing to do! 

If you don't already then please consider following me using Bloglovin, Thanks :)
Alex xoFacebook | Twitter | InstagramBloglovin