Last week I posted on my Instagram story asking how many of you who aren’t bloggers wanted to start a blog and what’s stopping you. I was surprised to see how many of my followers wanted to start a blog but still, haven’t. I’m here to give you the advice on how to get over the issues you’re having with starting.
The most common response to why people haven’t started a blog was lack of time. I definitely get this. It’s hard to think of when you’ll have time to generate ideas, take pictures, sit down and write a post, edit it and promote it. It’s definitely A LOT of work but its also worth it. My advice to anyone who thinks they won’t have time is to start small. There are no rules to blogging, if you only want to publish a post once a month, then do it. You don’t need to post twice a week or even every week. Before starting school I definitely had a lot more time and was posting twice or three times a week, almost every week. Now that I’m in school and working I don’t have a ton of time to takes photos for my posts. If you don’t have the time now to go out and take pictures for a post, use old ones! You can write about past vacations, outfits you’ve worn, or anything you’ve done in the past. There’s no reason you should worry you won’t have time to keep up with it because any progress is good progress. If you think you have NO free time at all to write a post, first I want you to think about something. How often are you mindlessly scrolling on Instagram or Twitter? How often do you lay in bed at night doing basically nothing on your phone? These are perfect times to write. If I notice I’m lying in bed, not tired and just playing on my phone, I’ll open my notes app and start writing a blog post on there. You can always edit on your computer at a different time! If you have no time to take pictures again, use old photos or use Pinterest or stock photos. Another tip is to come up with a schedule. For example, since I don’t work Sundays and most Mondays that’s when I try to take time to plan blog posts, write and take photos. I’m not too much of a going out person so I spend most of my Saturday nights working on my blog. The most important thing is to make a plan, don’t stress and don’t feel like there’s a specific way to have a blog.
Another response I got was they have no idea where to start. I have a small post on this which you can read here. I want to do a whole blog post on the details of really how to start a blog but for now, I’ll quickly tell you guys how I started. There are many platforms to start a blog but the one I used was WordPress. I love WordPress and have never had issues with it so that is the only site I have and still use. For the majority of the first year of blogging, I used their free plan. The free plan through WordPress doesn’t give you a ton of options but it’s great for someone who is just starting. One response I got was a lack of money and for the first year, I didn’t spend any money on my blog. So if you’re okay with having the word WordPress in your domain then there’s no reason to spend money. The set up is actually a lot easier than it seems but if you’re struggling with WordPress at all, please don’t hesitate to message me on Instagram and I would be more than willing to help you.
A response I definitely struggled with was the negativity that comes along with having a blog. People can be MEAN and that’s definitely something that can be hard on your mental health. My advice on this is to simply ignore it. I know how hard that can be but you can’t let someones negative energy bring you down from something that makes you happy. If you truly love writing, creating content, taking pictures or whatever it is about blogging then someone else’s opinions shouldn’t change that. If you’re really worried about what your followers will say about you then I would recommend starting a new Instagram dedicated for your blog. Since I was scared of the judgment, this is what I did. I figured if someone doesn’t want to see my content then they won’t follow that page and that is okay. I know I still get judgment but that’s on the other person. The best thing to do is to stay positive and not worry about things you can’t control.
My biggest advice of all is to be yourself and just go for it. It’s so important to do things for yourself and to do things that make you happy. If you EVER have questions about your blog or starting a blog please feel free to message me on Instagram, I would love to help.
xx,
Liv
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Great posts