The Blogging Experience

Thinking about the start of blogging:

There are so many steps a new blogger goes through. If you are not a blogger or have not tried it yet, maybe you did not realize it until now. Do not panic! I do not want to discourage you. People are so different, you can think simple or you can think complex about starting a blog. Or just somewhere inbetween.

A couple of things every blogger thinks about

Who am I as a blogger?
Be always true to yourself! The blog and all it’s posts are written by you. This does not mean the blog has to be about you!

Where am I blogging about?
Authenticity is very important! Discovering where you are really blogging about, passionate for, love to write about most of the time, feeling good about it… this process of discovering always takes time so it does not have to be specified at the start of your journey!

How should I name my blog?
Make a mindmap about everything you like and think about what you would turn into a blogging subject.

Should I have my own domain?
Yeah why not I always say. Though a domain cost money so the question you have to ask yourself first is…

Will I and am I able to spend money on my blog?
With this I mean are you willing to make some costs – further explained in the next questions.

Where should I start my blog?
This depends totally on what you really want. Think about that very carefully! See The simple way and The complex way down this paragraph of questions for more explanation.

Do I need a notebook or diary to plan all my posts?
Yeah you could have – if you would spend money – or use a piece of paper you already own. Or write it on your wall, in your smartphone or computer or laptop or anything else that accepts text in a (digital) written way.

Do I need to pay for my CMS – content management system – or themes and so on?
This is very dependent on your own taste. I do not prefer it personally. I am oke with a payment for my own domain, but I would love to design my blog all by myself or get the help from one of the many free themes that are also available. I am just a normal student and my taste for themes and styles differs every now and then. More complex or more simplified. The trend of the past few years is more simplicity.

Wait…again…How do I start?

The next list of tips are not given in a precise order.

The simple way

Think about a subject, give it a try – books / films / music? Is it cliché? So what! Seems like oke – as a start.
Think about a name – your own or a nickname or a classic…be creative or yourself.
Choose a place to start – Instagram (yes it’s a photoblog) / Twitter (yes it’s a micro 140 characters a post – blog) / Tumblr (combination of the previous ones in my opinion) / Blogspot / Blogger.com / WordPress.com
Choose a free theme
Give your blog a title
Start with your first blog post – say Hi for example to your future visitors
Give it a title and give it the content you want
Publish/post and done!

The complex way

All the steps of the above and…
More challenging to have a blogspace can be: WordPress.org or your own build website or through help of your domain host.
Add #hashtags to your blog post so your blog post can be indexed and found by the searchmachines as Google / Yahoo / Bing / Ask
Find popular or related hashtags through Hashtagify
Make a planning
Post frequently
Find out your best days and time to publish a post
See which social media you want to use to bring your blog under attention
Find out about communities
Find influencing and interesting people in those communities
Learn from other blogs by reading them too
Find a way to be inspired to keep your blog ongoing – a writer’s block can sometimes happen – who has not once in a while?
Redesign your blog now and then – not too much changes, your visitors are used by then to find blog post in a certain way they like. For example: change the theme every weather season, but do not change your sidebar
Write a disclaimer or policy

As you see, so many things a blogger can think about.

A beautiful thing about blogging is that you will learn about yourself. About what you do, what you want, where you are motivated for, how you can plan all the stuff and so on.

A blog is sometimes the mirror of the blogger. When they write, life is good. When they don’t, they are out of inspiration? Or they are just (temporary) done with it? Or something else? So many reasons why someone will not start or does not continue blogging.

My blog is my mirror. When I write I have inspiration to write about and not the writers block that stops me from writing and lets me only have concepts of blog posts.
No matter how good flourishing or bad my personal life by putting myself together is at that moment.
I am alive, it seems like I love this kind of writing, I write a blog post and here it is!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog post series of my blogging experience! This is the last post of this series for now. At the end of this year 2016 I write again about my new discovered experiences in blogging.

Greeting by Sophie

THE BLOGGING EXPERIENCE BLOG POSTS:

The Blogging Experience is my own idea of a new series of blog posts I will write to explain how I started years ago with making websites and started blogging. In this series I will write as well some tips on how to blog or where to think about when you start blogging or want to make it serious from blogging to business.

I hope you will enjoy these new blog post series! Any tips comments or tricks, always welcome: leave a comment or through Contact Me.

Greetings by Sophie

June 2nd, 2016