Have you been throwing around the idea of starting a blog? Too many ideas and not sure where to start? I know exactly how you feel because I've been there, not once, not twice, but three times. Blogging appealed to me immediately once I knew what it was. When I first started blogging, I didn't do tons of research about what it was or how to do it. I just knew that I had ideas that I wanted to share with the world. Starting out without research was a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because failure never crossed my mind, and a curse because I winged it the first two times so basically I failed to plan. It wasn't so easy to turn all of my ideas into a blog that made me and my audience happy, but I finally did it and now I want to help you do it too. Here's how:
How to Turn Your Idea Into a Blog
1. Pick a concept
More than likely you have more than one idea. Instead of trying to turn one specific idea into a blog, try grouping all of the ideas that can fit under the umbrella of a concept. Once you have grouped all of your like ideas, flesh out the concept. You can do this by figuring out how the ideas connect and flow together. Write down the ideas you have that don't fit into your concept and save them for later.
Remember to keep the concept and ideas simple.
More than likely you have more than one idea. Instead of trying to turn one specific idea into a blog, try grouping all of the ideas that can fit under the umbrella of a concept. Once you have grouped all of your like ideas, flesh out the concept. You can do this by figuring out how the ideas connect and flow together. Write down the ideas you have that don't fit into your concept and save them for later.
Remember to keep the concept and ideas simple.
2. Find your ideal audience
This isn't always easy, but I've got a post, "How to Discover Your Ideal Client" for that! The main idea is to get to know what makes your ideal audience tick. Get to know their problems and how your ideas may be of value to them. Brainstorm your concept and ideas and how you can turn them into several bite sized pieces of valuable information that will serve your audience.
3. Choose a blog schedule and social media plan
If you are just starting out and planning to launch your blog soon, I always suggest testing the waters. Blogging is new to you so this is a good way to test out if you will really like it and stick with it. To do this create a schedule for when you will write posts and how you will promote them on social media.
This isn't always easy, but I've got a post, "How to Discover Your Ideal Client" for that! The main idea is to get to know what makes your ideal audience tick. Get to know their problems and how your ideas may be of value to them. Brainstorm your concept and ideas and how you can turn them into several bite sized pieces of valuable information that will serve your audience.
3. Choose a blog schedule and social media plan
If you are just starting out and planning to launch your blog soon, I always suggest testing the waters. Blogging is new to you so this is a good way to test out if you will really like it and stick with it. To do this create a schedule for when you will write posts and how you will promote them on social media.
4. Practice writing a few posts
Once you have created your schedule try it out. Write some sample posts and have them prepared for the day you have set on your schedule. Brainstorm the type of photography that will really bring those posts to life. Also, preplan what social media channels you plan to use. It's a good idea to write some samples of the types of social media messages you would create to promote your posts. Doing all of these things will have you achieve two very important tasks: finding your voice and writing style and creating a bank of posts to use for your blog in the future.
Once you have created your schedule try it out. Write some sample posts and have them prepared for the day you have set on your schedule. Brainstorm the type of photography that will really bring those posts to life. Also, preplan what social media channels you plan to use. It's a good idea to write some samples of the types of social media messages you would create to promote your posts. Doing all of these things will have you achieve two very important tasks: finding your voice and writing style and creating a bank of posts to use for your blog in the future.
5. Choose a platform
You must have a platform to host your blog on and this is perhaps the piece of blogging that you'll do the most research on. The most well known platforms are Blogger and Wordpress. Decide on how you want your blog to look and how you want it to function. See what platforms fit your must haves. There is tons of research out there, but my recommendation is to try out platforms you are interested in to figure out if they are a good fit for you.
What is you biggest question about starting a blog?
You must have a platform to host your blog on and this is perhaps the piece of blogging that you'll do the most research on. The most well known platforms are Blogger and Wordpress. Decide on how you want your blog to look and how you want it to function. See what platforms fit your must haves. There is tons of research out there, but my recommendation is to try out platforms you are interested in to figure out if they are a good fit for you.
What is you biggest question about starting a blog?
Great post Kelley! I've been thinking about starting a blog, but I'm struggling a bit on how to get started...
ReplyDeleteWhat are your preference between the two platform you mentioned and why? Also, what would you suggest for a completely new blogger who is planning on beginning a personal style blog?
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm working on my blog and use Wordpress. My biggest concern right now is really design. I use a template from Wordpress but I would like for it to look more original. I don't currently have photoshop or Indesign on my laptop but I have dabbled in them before. Do you have any advice about that? Also, on how to gain more subscribers?
ReplyDelete