Blogging is one of my favorite creative outlets, and I love when I get questions about how to start a blog? For some, starting a blog with little or no experience can seem intimidating and unfeasible. The truth is–if I can do it, you can do it!
A few days ago, I received an Instagram message asking for tips on starting a blog. At first I was just going to email my response, but as I was typing away in Gmail, I quickly saw this topic of discussion morph into a full-fledged blog post and this “Ask Margo” feature was born!
I’ve worked as a blogger and freelance journalist for about eight years. I started out as a freelance writer for print magazines and have written print and digital stories for publications like Essence, Vibe Vixen, Sister 2 Sister, Jones and Clutch. I really gotten bitten by the blogging bug when my friends from Glamazonsblog.com tapped me on the shoulder to be a beauty contributor years ago; from there my passion for blogging blossomed.
There are so many things that I could share and there’s so much knowledge that I’ve acquired over the span of my professional and personal writing careers. This post won’t cover everything, but I hope that it will provide some guidance and reality to those who are planning to start blogging. Here are 10 tips to help blogger newbies get started!
1. Write a vision/mission statement for your blog.
The first thing that I did when starting Beauty & the Beat was to think of what I wanted my blog to be about, who my target audience was and what my goals were for this creative space. I started with a long list of goals and narrowed that down to a couple of sentences that describe what my blog’s all about. This has morphed over the years and has expanded to my About page, but I started with a bried overview. It can be a slogan or a paragraph, but you have to articulate what your blog’s about. I treated my vision/mission statement like a business by having an elevator speech prepared. Knowing my goals helped me when I reached out to a designer for my logo and it helped when I pitched potential collaborators and PR companies.
2. Write content that excites and inspires you!
When I launched B&B, I focused solely on beauty because that was my passion at the time. I loved it and it had been writing about it as for years. Eventually my interested started to change, and I started sharing bits of my personal style. I also love fitness and have shared some of my experiences with different workouts on the blog. Most recently, I’ve started sharing my yoga journey. The more I evolve, the more B&B evolves.
3. Create an editorial calendar.
Once you know what you want to blog about, it’s time to come up with story ideas! Establish what categories you want to talk about on your blog and how you’ll present them. Maybe you do so by printing out a calendar and writing special topics or hashtags that you’ll highlight; maybe you buy a journal or planner and use it for blog content ideas; or maybe you designate certain topics to certain days of the week. Regardless of how you do it, writing down what you plan to cover for the week (or month) makes life a lot easier in the blogosphere.
4. Establish a writing schedule and stick to it.
I update B&B every Monday , Wednesday and Friday. By establishing this pattern, my readers know to check the blog on these days and they’re expecting new content. It holds me accountable to create new content and it keeps people coming back. Establish a schedule and let your readers know when you’ll be posting. You can include this info on your About page, somewhere on your landing page or when you post on social media. Consistency is key.
5. Come up with a social media strategy.
Once you come up with the name of your blog, be sure to create social media handles across all of the platforms that you’ll be using. Try to use the exact name of your blog or get as close to your blog name as possible! From there strategize what you want the aesthetic of your posts to be. Will you only use certain filters? How often will you post? Will you establish your own hashtag for your followers to use? Once you sort through these basics, follow some of your favorite bloggers and observe what they do. Connect with new bloggers, too. Search through blogger related hashtags, look at the hashtags popular bloggers use on their posts and do the same!
6. Use social media as a networking tool.
Like and comment on pictures but do it authentically. Don’t follow someone with the intention of unfollowing them as soon as they follow you back. It seems desperate and it’s rude! Also, if someone follows you but you aren’t inspired by their posts, don’t feel obligated to follow them back. You want to build a loyal following of people who genuinely support you. Genuine relationships matter. Some brands value the quality of engagement more than the numbers. If you have 1k followers who comment and like your posts consistently, you might land a campaign that someone with 20k followers and no engagement won’t.
7. Join blogger support communities.
Blogger communities are the best! Having a safe place to connect with like-minded people who know your struggles and offer advice and tips is priceless. A lot of these communities are places to ask questions, share your experiences and learn about blogging opportunities. Heart IFB was a fabulous resource for me when I first started to dabble in fashion blogging. (They have great blogging advice for everyone even though the focus is on fashion bloggers.) One of my favorite blogger networks is the Bloggers Like Me (BLM) group. There are countless others out there too. You can do a Google search and use social media to find these kinds of groups.
8. Invest in a good camera and accessories.
Besides a reliable laptop, it’s important to have a reliable camera that takes great pictures. A few years ago, I invested in a Canon T3 DSLR. I took photography classes and college and we worked with Canon’s so I decided to stick with what I knew. I also bought a tripod and remote control. I didn’t have a photographer handy at the time, so I took my outfit pictures myself. I’m not saying that you need a DSLR for the best pictures, in fact there are several cameras like these that are a bit more affordable than DSLRs. If you’re a bargain shopper like me, you’re constantly watching sales, and with Black Friday around the corner you might be able to snag the camera of your dreams for a considerable discount.
I also recommend having a couple of lenses handy. I do a lot of fashion and product pictures here and started using a 50mm lense. It has made such a difference in the quality of my pictures. Do some research to find out which lenses work best for what you’re trying to do.
9. Blogger vs. WordPress
When I started B&B, I used Blogger as a platform. It was easy to navigate and that was what all of my friends recommended at the time. After researching more about some of the blogs with amazing layouts and designs that I followed, I realized they were housed on WordPress. So, I did some research and figured out how to move my content to WordPress. What I liked most about WordPress was having the liberty to customize my page. They offer so many widgets and fun layouts and designs. I’m very happy I made the change!
10. You might get burnt out, but this is normal.
A couple of years after starting my blog, I got frustrated and burnt out. I was working full-time, blogging for a couple of websites and also freelancing for a magazine. Not to mention being very involved in church and trying to spend time with family and friends. It was a lot and I could feel myself wearing thin. I took a break from blogging, but I didn’t do it the right way.
I didn’t inform my readers about all of the stress I felt. I just went cold turkey and boy oh boy did my numbers drop! After about 6 months of inactivity all of that work that I put into building a consistent following went out the window. It was like starting from scratch. So, if you get burnt out find new topics to blog about or reach out to guest bloggers to give yourself a break. Don’t go MIA without letting your readers know. You’ll pay for it. It was kind of a good thing for me because it put a fire under my butt. The past year 6 months have been quite the exciting experience because I feel like a new blogger who’s re-learning my audience and crafting new niche for my site.
*In case you’re wondering…. all of these fab pictures are from an ah-mazing stock photo company called CreateHER Stock; I’m obsessed!
Ciao Bellas,
