HOW TO START A BLOG | 5 BLOGGING ESSENTIALS

Starting a blog is hard. Period. From the many moments of self-doubt (“Should I really do this? Why would anyone care about what I think?”) to the tech troubles and all the way through the frustration of trying to figure out how people actually make money doing this.

And don’t even get me started on the endless information floating around the internet that tells you to try this and try that. What? Are you suppose to try 1150 strategies until one works?

I get it. I get it because I was in the same boat just a few years ago. I started my blog because I’m obsessed with fashion and have always loved writing. Fast forward a few years and I realized people actually blog professionally. Exsqueeze me?! I could have been doing this instead of working 60 hours as a retail manager all along?! Sign me up!

Ah, if only it were that easy.

It took time, commitment, a lot of late nights, many frustrated tears (Frears. Get it? Like “frying”? No?) and an unwavering determination to make this damn thing happen before I saw any results. I enrolled in countless courses, read tons of articles and e-books and even hired a business coach. I experimented and altered my strategy and tried new things and got really comfortable with failing.

Eventually, I discovered systems and strategies that actually worked with my hectic schedule (full-time student and working 50-60 hours a week) instead of making me feel overwhelmed and stressed 24/7.

Being able to monetize my blog and quit my job is definitely one of my greatest accomplishments and makes me feel so grateful that I never gave up and I remained resilient, even when it didn’t seem like anything was going right for me.

I get emails all the time from readers asking me how to start a blog and saying they feel overwhelmed or intimidated by the idea. I don’t think it should feel so hard. It should be fun and enjoyable because hello, isn’t that why you started in the first place? Because you were having fun and enjoyed it?

So to help you get really clear on what you actually need to do to get your blog up and running, I wanted to share my 5 blogging essentials for beginners. I hope you find this useful!

#1: YOU NEED A NICHE

Obviously, you need to know what you’re even writing about. Duh. But what exactly does “finding your niche” even mean?

Your niche is essentially just the topic of your blog. You’ll hear from some bloggers that they recommend “niching down” and getting super specific but I don’t think that’s a necessity.

I think it’s more important that you’re feeling really clear on who you are and what your message is. I’m a fashion and lifestyle blogger which is pretty broad but I know that my unique point of view comes through my writing and makes my content original. I’m in my twenties, I live in San Francisco, I’m petite, I’m a feminist, the list goes on and on. All of these things are what craft my worldview and the way I create my content. I didn’t have any desire to get super specific and write about just one thing so I didn’t do. And you don’t have to either.

That being said, you should still ensure all of your topics and content feel really cohesive. Just because you love your dog doesn’t mean you should have a section dedicated to him on your food blog. Just saying.

Make a list of all of the topics you love and are passionate about. Then make a list of all of the things you’re really good at. What do your friends come to you for advice about? Then compare the lists. Any overlap? If so, that just might be your sweet spot.

#2: YOU NEED A WEBSITE

Another duh moment but stay with me here.

The tech side of setting up your blog can be a real drag, so I’m going to break it down for you.

To set up your website you need three things:

#1: A domain (your blog’s address)

#2: A host (the service that hosts your blog)

#3: A platform (the software that you use to create and update your blog).

There are some hosting services that will provide all three of these things (like Squarespace) which can make your life a lot easier. I personally used godaddy.com to register my domain (super fast and easy), iPage for my host and WordPress for my blog’s platform. This did admittedly involve a learning curve and a lot of googling in terms of set up but I’m happy with all three services. There are endless options so definitely do your research and see which ones look like the right fit for you.

When I created my coaching website I used Squarespace and totally fell in love. I highly recommend using it if you’re new to blogging and not tech savvy (like me) because WordPress can be a little confusing for beginners. Squarespace is extremely user-friendly, sleek and offers a ton of customization options.

Once you get your website set up you obviously can begin the fun part of choosing a template and design. I would start with something simple for now because you can always make changes later. Don’t let your design not being “ready yet” or not exactly how you envisioned it stop you from creating content and just getting started.

#3: YOU NEED A MARKETING STRATEGY

One of the key mistakes I see new bloggers make hitting publish and forgetting about their post like they never even wrote it in the first place. You can’t expect that just by publishing your content people are going to see it. If you’re not actively promoting your post, leveraging SEO and creating a consistent marketing strategy than you just wasted your own time.

Think about how you want to utilize social media and which platforms you’re going to use. How are you going to create enticing content that will inspire your followers to check out your blog? Are you on Pinterest? What about an email list? Will you use Facebook Ads? Do you effectively use keywords?

Not every strategy will work for every blogger but it’s important to have a plan in place and to consistently execute it.

A great way to get started is to pick one social media platform and focus on growing that following and leverage Pinterest. If you’re able to grow an authentic following via social media and drive traffic to your website through Pinterest then you’ll be able to grow your audience quickly and consistently.

#4: YOU NEED AWESOME CONTENT

Another obvious one here, but it’s true. If you’re producing low-quality content then it won’t matter how well you market it. It’s a balancing act. You have to create amazing content and also market it effectively. You can’t be successful without both.

Think about what you’re providing to your readers through your content. What kind of value are you giving them? Instead of just sharing an outfit of the day post could you give them 5 tips for styling cold weather layers? Think about how you can make your content entertaining and useful.

Ensuring that your blog posts include images, headers, and graphics to make the content more “readable” and interesting will help you gain a loyal readership. If you’re writing a really long blog post that has few paragraphs, no images and no headers it can feel really overwhelming to the reader. It’s not just about the writing, it’s about how you present it.

You can also increase the quality of your content by tapping into what your readers really want and need. You can research this by going into Facebook groups where you think your audience is spending time and either ask straight up if they’d be interested in the topic you have in mind or search for it to see what people are asking. You can search hashtags related to your topic on Instagram or Twitter to see what people are saying about it. Take some time to ask for feedback and understand what’s actually going to be useful for them.

#5: YOU NEED A PLAN

I am the planning Queen. I’m obsessed with all things organization and scheduling. So when it came to creating a system that would work for me I found it a pretty enjoyable process.

The first thing you’ll want to do is create an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is your overview of the entire month’s content. You should plan out not only your blog posts ahead of time, but also your social media content and anything else you’re producing. This way you can ensure your content feels balanced and avoid being repetitive, you can plan ahead for special events (like holidays) and then prepare your content ahead of time.

Once you have your editorial calendar ready you can start creating an actual blogging schedule. Think about what times during the week you’re free and which times you’ll be your most productive. If you’re a morning person then maybe scheduling yourself three mornings a week to work on your blog will be best for you. Be realistic and honest with yourself. As someone who worked long hours, it was always a bad idea for me to schedule myself to complete anything blog related after I got home from work. It just wouldn’t get done. So instead of getting frustrated with myself for being too tired to blog, I started creating a better schedule that worked for me, not against me.

Create a loose scheduling template that you can follow each week and be disciplined. If you want your blog to be your business someday, you have to treat it like one. This means sticking to the schedule you create for yourself and tweaking it over time to make it the best it can be.

A lot of new bloggers will just dive right in and blog whenever they can squeeze in time or whenever inspiration strikes. The problem with being so unstructured is that you won’t be able to produce quality content consistently because you’re not planning to.

I would also recommend preparing your content anywhere from 1-4 weeks in advance so you don’t have to feel so under pressure to get something up each week. You’ll already have content finished and scheduled to go live while you’re working on future content. That way if something comes up (because you’re human) it won’t feel like you’re getting behind if you need to take a day off from blogging.

I hope you found this helpful! I know in the beginning blogging can feel super daunting but it is more than possible for you to grow your audience and even make this your full-time career. Even if it doesn’t feel like it right now, you can do it. Trust me, if I can, then anyone can.

Want to learn the exact steps to build your blog in just 5 days? Click here!

If you’re feeling frustrated or overwhelmed and want to get after your blogging goals quickly and with less trial and error, I offer several coaching services (one 1:1 strategy sessions all the way to 90-day programs) that are meant to work seamlessly with any schedule and have a variety of price ranges. I’m obsessed with helping other aspiring bloggers find systems and strategies that work for their lifestyles so they can go after their blogging dreams without feeling drained. You can learn more about my blogging journey and how I can help you by clicking here.

When I started actually taking blogging seriously and really investing in myself it was shocking how quickly things changed for me. In less than a year I was quitting my job, went from 1K followers to over 20K and finally having the freedom to do what I loved for a living. And I’m not special, at all. I just worked really hard and got the support I needed to succeed. Unfortunately, you can’t DIY everything. Sometimes you need to actually take the time to educate yourself to start seeing results.

What blogging struggle are you currently going through? Tell me in the comments!

Xoxo,

Sheila