“Without fear, there can be no courage, growth, or transformation.”
So you’ve decided that you want to start a blog. That’s great! But you don’t know where to start, you just know that you can envision your blog, creating a connection with people and sharing your stories, and it makes you so excited to get started!
Like all millennials that want to know how to do something, you jump on Google and ask, “how to start a blog”, followed by, “checklists for starting a blog”, and “starting a blog in 2019”. You begin clicking in, reading, and suddenly you don’t know if you should be starting a blog at all.
“What’s with all this technical stuff? I didn’t know I should look into spam protection and Pinterest optimization strategies… wow. This is a lot of information…”
That was my reaction. I honestly thought I could just breeze through, open a domain, come up with a cool name and start designing, writing and posting. But boy, it looks like there’s a lot more to it then just that. And then comes the doubt.
It’s going to take a lot of work to start this blog, do I have enough time for it?
My niche seems cool but what if no one is searching for the information I want to share?
I want to tell personal stories but what if my stories don’t give value since I’m not an expert or selling something?
ALRIGHT THAT’S ENOUGH. No more limiting beliefs.
I’ve been on YouTube for nearly 2 years and so I’m going to try and connect starting a blog with a YouTube channel. They have a lot of similarities and if you can do one, you should be able to figure out how to be successful at the other.
For YouTube, everything you do comes down to “why?”. Why do you want to spend so much time creating videos?
It’s the same with a blog. So before you can even start blogging, you need to sit down and find a strong why factor that will keep you motivated through the first year (which is the hardest part because you will probably only hear crickets on your first posts).
The “why” should be something that’s important to YOU. Don’t try to mold your blog (or YouTube channel) to fit trends or to reach everyone and their mother. Just start with what you’re passionate about.
One key to starting anything is to identify your target audience. Who are you writing to? Who is going to be the ideal reader of your blog? You might want to think about this before you start, or you might want to wait.
When I started my YouTube channel, I thought I was going to reach all young people (18-28). I soon found out later that while the majority of my audience is closer to my age, I have many loyal subscribers who don’t fit into that category (some are in their 40s, 50s, or even 70s!).
So when starting out, it’s good to have an idea of who you are talking to based on your niche, but I wouldn’t spend too much time on this, especially if you haven’t posted anything yet.
Instead, focus on your topic and let your passion shine through your content. If you are successful at this, you will ultimately attract your “tribe”, or your specific target audience. It can’t get any easier than being yourself!
The other thing to keep in mind when starting a blog is your end goal. Do you want this blog to be “just for fun” or do you desire to create a full-blown business out of it? This will determine how much time and effort you should be planning to put into your blog depending on where you see your blog in the next 1-3 years.
Depending on your end goal, you should also start thinking about how the hosting site is going to affect your blog down the road. Is there room to expand? You don’t want to put your blood, sweat and tears into creating a blog that isn’t going to be able to serve you in the best way possible if you want to expand into a business.
Research all of the hosting site options and decide which one will fit your needs. Some are free. Some are not. This is also something to keep in mind.
The blog name is something else to consider before starting because it won’t be easy to change once you have a custom URL based on your blog name. This part might actually take some time to figure out, but you don’t want to rush.
For the name, make sure you a. Love the name you pick and b. Feel that the name you pick is suitable for any future expansion of your brand in the long run (if that’s something you’re considering).
So I guess for me, my final “starting points” for getting the blog going would be:
- Pick your blog topic or “niche”
- Come up with an awesome blog name
- Figure out where you want to publish your blog online
- Set goals for the future of the blog
- Write a few posts to get the creative juices flowing and to have a bit of content to start
- Start posting on the blog
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Don’t expect perfection during the first week, month, or even year. It’s going to be a creative process that will take time to get better at. The only way you will reach your full potential as a blogger is by STARTING.
Do the steps above to get the ball rolling, and be sure to put in a few hours a week to writing, publishing and marketing the blog. You can do this. You are meant to do this.
It’s gonna be amazing.