There it is, right in front of you. The blank screen.
You’ve had this idea floating around in your head for months. You’ve tossed it around to your close friends and some select family members. They’ve told you it would be a great idea. You’re creative, inspiring, full of knowledge they’ve said and well, you believe them. The world would totally benefit from the thoughts you mull over in the late hours of the night or while zoning out in class. So you said “Yea! Lets do it!” and you created an account. You thought long and hard about a URL and spent way too long finding a theme that shows the world, or at least the blogosphere at first glance what kind of sophisticated blogger you are. If you’re the super prepared type you may even have a notebook of blog ideas to pick from and you start tapping away.
The computer keys are singing their praises as you finally set your inner word artist free. You type for what feels like hours, bravely composing a masterpiece, something the world has yet to stumble upon. You give your finished product a once, twice, thrice over. You’re satisfied. You wipe the sweat off your brow and press that big button up there, PUBLISH, and you wait. And wait…annnd wait. No likes. No follows. No comments even tho you so sweetly invited your readers to do just that. Absolutely no interaction. What did you do wrong? Where are your followers? Did you just waste your creative energy by tossing your best work (so far) into the abyss of the internet? No, no you tell yourself. It’s just the first post, and besides you’re not blogging for attention, this is merely a creative outlet. One day when you’ve established yourself you’ll have interaction. You’ll be discovered. So you post, and post, and post. Still nothing. What are you doing wrong?
If you expect me to answer this for you, I cannot. I am still new to this form of blogging. I have been blogging on other forums for years but this is my first experience blogging in this way. It’s interesting. So, for me to claim to know the ins and outs would be presumptuous. I can however share with you some tips I’ve picked up from just poking around for a little while.
Tip 1: Catchy Titles Win- You want the title of your posts to be catchy. Get your reader excited, but be careful, you still want your title to be relevant to what you’re actually writing about.
Tip 2: Make It Easy- Subheadings are your friend. Especially if you tend to write long posts. A lengthy blog post can be fun to write, but can be a chore to read, especially if your readers are trying to find something specific.
Tip 3: Interact- You need to interact to get interaction. It makes sense. No one here knows you exist until you tell them you exist. Now, you should not simply like or comment on someones post just so they know you exist. Read their posts, learn about them, develop a genuine interest in their blog and what they’re about. Interact on that level and not only will you potentially develop a much-needed relationship in the blogging world, but they will more than likely return the favor. (note: not everyone will be super willing to communicate with a new blogger, that’s okay. The ones who will are the ones that matter.)
Tip 4: Advertise- Get out there. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook whatever else you’d like. Use the tools you already have. I’m currently working on this one. Mainly because I haven’t fully embraced the idea of all of those people coming here to read and judge my content. My confidence level isn’t quite there yet. I’ll get there.
Tip 5: Remember Why You Started- Remember what your initial blogging goal was. Who were you trying to reach? What were you trying to say? Are you still on target? If you’ve wandered a bit, figure out your next course of action, how can you get back on track or what is your new target?
Tip 6: Have Fun With It- I don’t know what your end goal to blogging is. I know for me I would eventually like to make it profitable, but along the way I still want to have fun. I’ve seen what a blogger who hates blogging looks like…it’s not pretty. They’re miserable. Write about things that you love. Even when you start making money (if that’s your goal). Bring yourself joy and it will spread to your readers.
I hope you find these tips useful. Are any of you new bloggers? What tips have helped you out in your blogging adventures? What challenges do you face?
For my veteran bloggers in the audience, what major obstacles did you face when you first started blogging. Any advice for new bloggers?
Leave a comment, a like or both! I look forward to hearing from you!
Enjoy the rest of your week, and as always Stay Lovely!
Nicole
Nicole Eva 
These are some really good tips you shared for first timers! I definitely agree that it’s important to interact with your audience. If someone can take time to read what you write, the least a writer can do is write back to show his/her gratitude. In fact, that pretty much applies to any type of social media platform. I can’t tell you how many times I have come across YouTube channels where the creator will just let comments sit there and/or only reply to their “favorite viewers.” Replying to someone makes them feel welcome, appreciated, and it can lead to engaging conversations.
I’ve heard a lot of people say that you need social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, etc., if you’re gonna have a blog. I don’t even have any of those social media accounts and I have no idea what I would be posting on there if I had a blog up and running. I mean, I know I would be mentioning any new blog posts (duh!), but I mean like other content. But I guess I’ll cross that bridge whenever I get there/
Another great blog post you shared!
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Thanks ☺️☺️
And exactly I always try to make sure I do respond (even if it takes me a little while to do so, introvert life leaves me easily socially exhausted lol).
I’ve also left comments on people’s work either on Instagram or YouTube just to have it sit there and look pretty and honestly it sucks! I hate that. I really enjoy having a community of people who want to have conversations with me so I don’t really understand that personally.
Once you get to that bridge, feel free to reach out to me ☺️ I’d love to give you some tips! I’ve found that as boring as it may seem to you, people just like seeing you live life authentically. We like people we can relate and talk to so regardless of what platform you use if you’re leading with who you are and giving people a chance to see you, you’ll do well ☺️ I struggle with it because I like to hide away behind my words but then I remember why my favorite bloggers and youtubers are my favorite. And it’s not because they’re fancy, but simply because I like those moments that make them human 😊
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