Starting Your Blog

Since I started blogging, I have received more questions about "How to start a blog" than any other. Blogging is now the big "thing" to do. With so many blogs out there, it is really impossible to accurately determine the number of blogs in the UK or rest of the world. If this was possible, we would also need to look at how many blogs are active or dead and, how many have meaningful establishment. Not all blogs are good blogs and not all good blogs are reachable due to SEO functionality and many other computing jargon. 

Starting your own blog is not an easy task because you have to keep update of it and make it interesting to keep your followers and attract new ones. There are five critical questions you MUST ask yourself before creating your blog. Rather than giving you some steps, I have questions for you. They are as follows:

1. Why do I want to create a blog?

Like I've mentioned before, creating a blog is not as easy as it seems. It requires a tremendous level of determination and persistence. Don't create a blog for the sake of it or because your friend has a blog. You should create a blog because you have an alluring content to share with many. This content could be anything, from fashion, music, poetry, design to literally anything at all. Once you've decide why you want to create a blog, this leads to the next question.

2. How do I create a blog?

You can create a blog using blogger. This is the same domain as this blog or you can use Wordpress. From experience, blogger is more easier to use and can take between 10-30minutes to create depending on your computing skills. Blogger is straightforward and with Google+, your content can reach more audience. Downside to creating using a public space is that you don't own the domain name, for example- my blog appear as eighteenf.blogspot.com. Blogspot.com is a public domain owned by blogger. If you wish to buy your domain you might lose your followers as your blog will not be visible to those using blogspot.com/co.uk. As always, we are concerned about the cost of blogging. So you ask....

3. How much will it cost to start a blog?

It is FREE to start a blog. Beware of so called "web designers" who ask for payments before creating a blog. The only cost you might incur is for creating your own domain. For example, if you do not wish to have www.myblog.blogspot.com instead www.myblog.co.uk 

4. What is my blog name?

A very good question that you might struggle to answer. Give your blog a creative but memorable name. Don't use codes only understandable to you. Use names or words that people will remember. When promoting your blog, make sure you use this always (in your emails, messages and so on). To prevent copyright issues, check online to make sure no one is currently using the name. Avoid unnecessary stress and humiliation!

5. How do I promote my blog?

This is the most difficult part of owning a blog. Promoting and marketing your blog is the fundamental tool to keeping your blog alive, otherwise it will soon be a dead blog wasting space on www. You can promote your blog through social media sites. I will suggest you create a Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest page specifically for your blog (use blog name!). Keep personal information to a minimum and focus on your contents. Also, join communities of bloggers such as IFB (Independent Fashion Bloggers). Once you join communities of bloggers, you can network and build on your niche. Your niche will determine your following. There is no such thing as "narrowing your content will reduce your following". Total rubbish! There is something for everyone. If you want to be a food blogger, you might want to consider what areas of food you want to blog about. For example, you might want to focus on pastries/baking rather than meals. Therefore, pastry will be your niche in your description as a food blogger. 

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