When I first started my blog in 2019, I was SO nervous! I had no idea what I was doing! I spent hours researching, studying top fashion and lifestyle bloggers, and obsessing over blog advice on Pinterest. It took me two years before launching my blog because of second guessing myself. I wish I would have started sooner because blogging has brought me so much joy and amazing opportunities! This blog post contains must-know blogging advice for beginners. I hope that I can inspire whoever is reading this to take the plunge and start your blog today!
Affiliate disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you choose to purchase from the links provided in this post. You can read my full disclaimer HERE.
Don’t Wait for the Perfect Time to Start
If I had only one piece of advice to give, it would be to start right now! You could spend hours, days, weeks thinking about it, but nothing will change until you actually start. I spent two years thinking, second-guessing myself, and thinking of reasons why blogging would be a bad idea. I cannot express enough how important it is to ignore those negative thoughts and jump right in! Something that has made me a better blogger in the long run is learning as I go. You don’t need to know everything before you start.
My first “official” blogging photo Oct. 2019 A recent blogging photo Jan. 2021
Take Time to Learn
Speaking of learning, it’s important to continue taking the time to learn new things when it comes to blogging. I have tried to save money on education by reading free resources online or taking courses that are on sale. My favorite place to find new blogging tips and advice is on Pinterest. There are millions of articles on Pinterest that experts in the field update frequently. It’s worth creating a board on Pinterest where you can save this free information. Another place I like to get information is from other bloggers in Facebook groups. These groups allow you to ask specific questions which can be super helpful. Connecting with other bloggers makes blogging more fun as well because of the amazing community aspect.
Create Lists of Content Ideas
Creating lists of ideas or topics to write about makes blogging so much easier! Think of a topic that you could talk endlessly about. For me, I love all things fashion so I knew that would be a great niche for me. Once I have a general idea, I think of more specific ideas. I try to think of things that could be helpful, entertaining, or useful to my audience. For example, I love sharing Amazon Fashion hauls and Favorites in blog posts because I shop on Amazon regularly. This is one example of taking a part of an idea and fleshing it out to create lots of content! Other content ideas include: weekly outfit ideas, how to style an article of clothing several ways, how to organize your closet, etc. All these ideas stem from Fashion so my blog stays consistent.
Cross-Promote on Your Social Platforms
It can be scary to tell the world that you’ve started a blog, but it can help you grow your audience! By sharing on Facebook, Instagram, etc, the people you are already friends with will become your first readers and subscribers. From there, you can work on promoting your blog to your target audience through other social platforms. Word of mouth is a free and easy way to gain traffic to your blog. You just need to get over the fear of what others might think! Once I started sharing my blog links on Facebook and Instagram, my blog views increased drastically. I highly recommend cross promoting if you want to gain traffic to your blog!
Absolutely Must-Know Blogging Advice for Beginners: Start your blog as a SELF-HOSTED blog!
This final piece of must-know blogging advice for beginners is something I wish I would have implemented immediately when starting my blog. If you take anything away from this blog post, please take this piece of advice! I started out on a free hosting platform but quickly realized that the free platform was super limiting and would not allow me to monetize or use affiliate links the way I wanted to. Once I realized that the free option was not going to allow me to grow, I had to figure out how to transfer all of my data to a self-hosted platform which took two full days and a lot of headache. If I could start over again, I would start my blog on a self-hosted platform to make sure I was able to do everything I wanted to do with my blog.
My Recommendation for Hosting
I chose Siteground as my self-hosting platform because of the amazing customer service and ability to completely customize your website. Not to mention how affordable Siteground is as a hosting platform. If you are interested in starting a blog, I highly recommend Siteground. My affiliate link provided HERE will give you your first year of Siteground hosting for an amazing discount. You can start your blog for as little as $6.99 a month. It is worth the up front investment, especially if you hope to make money from your blog. I have made more than enough in commissions and referrals to pay back this up-front cost and actually make money from my space on the internet. I cannot recommend self-hosting enough! Even if you don’t go with Siteground, you need to make sure the platform you use allows you to use affiliate links and other ways of monetization.
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