Carrie This Home is 6 months old and over these past months I’ve learned a lot about the blogging world. Today I’m going to share 8 quick tips for new blogs including the best pieces of advice and some valuable resources for people who are thinking about starting or have recently started a blog.
Things to think about BEFORE starting a blog:
Never compare your beginning to someone else’s middle. This is by far the best blogging advice I’ve received and it came from my friend Mandy from House of Rose. When you’re first starting out, don’t expect your blog or posts to be as good as someone who’s been at it much longer than you. This gave me the freedom to jump in and be happy with what I was doing instead of comparing myself to others. It takes a lot of the pressure off. You have to start somewhere. Just start doing it and learn as you go.
Take a lot of time time and write down a lot ideas for blog posts. Take time to find out what you’re passionate about. After the newness of blogging has gone, your passion will keep things going. After writing posts for awhile, see if there’s a recurring theme to what you like to write about. This will help when you create a blog name and a theme that goes all around your passion.
Speaking of names…
Choose your blog name, domain, and theme VERY carefully. This is so important because these things can’t be changed very easily. Put a lot of thought and strategy into this step. I think it took me almost a month to decide on my blog name.
Here’s an example of what not to do: Let’s say you want to blog about parenting little ones. Great. Your blog name idea is “I love my baby.” In a short couple years this baby won’t be a baby anymore so what are you going to blog about then? Make sure the name, domain, and theme doesn’t narrow your potential material down but is broad enough to give you plenty to write about.
As you’re thinking of blog names you also have to find out if those domains are available on social media. Knowem.com is a great place to find out if potential blog names are available.
Write when you get the inspiration. In the beginning, I kept a notebook in my purse and I would jot down ideas for blog posts as they came to me. Then I can return to parenting, changing diapers, cleaning, etc peacefully knowing I hadn’t lost my great idea. The best ideas usually come to me at very random times, so I have to be ready when they come.
Ask yourself: If your blog doesn’t make any money–will you still want to do it? This is hugely important because a blog will take a ridiculous amount of time and you need to evaluate if it’s truly worth it. I went into blogging as a hobby hoping that eventually it would make money. I’m still waiting for the money to start coming in! However, it’s turned out to be something I really enjoy so for now that’s okay. There’s no wrong answer in this; you just need to be honest and realistic with yourself.
Once your blog is up and running, here’s some things to think about:
- Any task with blogging will take at least 4 times longer than you think it will. It happens to me EVERY TIME!
- The more pictures in a post, the more work and time it takes. I am very picky about pictures. They have to look good. So naturally I spend a lot of time and effort with pictures.
- Keep going! You will have times when you want to give up. Go back to your passion and hopefully the inspiration will come.
Valuable resources:
Pinterest. There’s a lot of great blogging resources out there on Pinterest. To see some great tips, check out my blog board. Engaging and sharing your posts on Pinterest is also a great way to gain exposure and blog subscribers.
Blogging With Amy: Amy has a wonderful website dedicated to helping others start blogs. I am not technically savvy but through watching her videos and reading her articles I was able to start my self hosted blog all by myself.
The Blog Maven: Jeni writes about a variety of blogging topics that have been hugely helpful to me.
Something Swanky: Ashton’s desserts and designs blog shares lots of helpful posts on DIY design. And some really awesome desserts that make me drool!
PicMonkey.com: I used this free photo editing website to make my header, buttons and a lot of the images in my sidebar. The Blog Maven and Something Swanky both have excellent tutorials on how to do this.
Me! I’d love to help in any way I can. I’m no expert so if I’m not able to help you I’ll try to point you to someone who can! Feel free to leave a comment or email me at carriethishome@gmail.com.
I’m curious to know:
- Have you started a blog recently? If so how’s it going?
- What was the best piece of advice you’ve gotten about blogging?
- If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?
- What are your favorite blogging resources?
This post was linked to: Inspire Me Please Weekend Blog Hop, Tatertots and Jello, and In and Out of the Kitchen.
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. This means if you sign up for PicMonkey’s awesome Royale version, I will earn a small commission & you will be supporting Carrie This Home at no extra cost to you!
Thank you for the tips. I will be using these! I started out on wordpress.com and I just purchased my own domain name, now I’m trying to figure out all the changes of having my own domain.
Congrats on making the big move, Stephanie! I’m so glad this was helpful for you! Let me know if you have any questions and I’d be glad to help!
Carrie….I would never have guessed that you’ve been blogging for only 6 months. You are definitely extraordinary!!! Your advice is right on the money…whether we make any or not blogging. 😉 And I agree…everything seems to take much longer than it seems it should.
Thanks for sharing your post at Project Inspire{d}-AnExtraordinaryDay.net
At the time I wrote this I had only been blogging 6 months and now it’s been over a year. I’m still learning more each day!
This is a heartfelt and honest post-well done to you! I’ve been blogging since late 2009 and just recently had a very long break. It all got too much for me and it was taking over at times when it shouldn’t have. I’m glad to be back and have learnt not to push myself too much.
Best wishes and thanks for sharing your tips!
Natasha in Oz
That is such a great perspective to have! I’m glad you got time away to get things back into perspective. I’ve been getting to that point where it’s taken over too much so I’m trying to scale back. Blogging is fun but not when it takes over more important things! I’m so happy to hear this was helpful to you!
Carrie, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and being the first person to post! I’m new to blogging and love to read tips on blogging from fellow bloggers. Thanks for posting this. I do have a question…how do you know how many times on of your pins on Pinterest has been pinned?
You’re doing a great job, Erlene! Isn’t blogging so much fun? I’m so glad this post was helpful to you! The way I can tell how many times a post has been pinned is through a WordPress plug in called Shareaholic. If you notice, at the bottom of every post there are social media icons and then there is a counter right next to it. There may be better ways to track pins, but this is just how I’m doing it for now.
Thank you. I’ll give that a try.
Erlene: I just found a super easy way to see how many times a post has been pinned on Pinterest. Go to this website and paste in the URL of the blog post and it will tell you! Super easy!
http://pinterestplugin.com/pincount/
Thanks. This one tells you how many pins were made from your blog site, right? Not how many times it was pinned on Pinterest itself.
These are great tips, Carrie. I started a Google doc where I keep my list of blog ideas that way I can access it from my phone wherever I am when an idea strikes me. I think the hardest thing as a new blogger, though, is not letting my enthusiasm in the beginning make it into something bigger than I can truly maintaining year-round. Slow and steady, so it never starts to feel like a burden or a chore. There is so much to learn. Thanks for sharing links to some great resources.
I wrote that post before I had a smartphone so I also use Google docs for blog info. What a lifesaver that is! That’s a great point–harness all the great ideas now and just go at a pace that you can keep up with. I’ve discovered that about two posts a week is all I can do now and I’m okay with that. I have PLENTY of ideas to blog about and maybe in a few years when both my kids go to school I can start blogging as my part time job and put out more posts. It seems like you are learning a lot fast so I encourage you to blog about what you love and enjoy the process!
I really appreciated your post. What you talked about with choosing the name I totally get. I have literally had three different blogs because I have changed the name. I finally settled on the blog name I have now, “Twenty One & Over My Head”, even though I knew I wouldn’t be actually twenty one for much longer when I made it. But the idea with the name and blog was that it is just about this season of my life and feeling like you have so much to do when you are really still so young.
That being said I still think about the title and if it is limiting me at all. What I came back to I guess was that it will be a blog about my twenties in a way. &If it is nine years later and I’m still blogging regularly and loving it then I could always change it up somehow I guess. I just feel like I will always want to keep changing my Blog name because thats just me. I like to mix things up. So might as well keep what I have in this season of my life.
Wow this is a novel and more like a monologue to my self about the blog. haha I really did just want to say I enjoyed your tips! haha Goodness Gracious I get carried away!
Thank you so much for your input, Lydia! I don’t mind a long comment at all! I love your blog name–it’s really creative and catchy! It may limit you a bit but at least that won’t happen for nine more years! I’m so glad these tips were helpful to you. Maybe in nine years when you turn 30 and you’re still blogging you could always shorten the name to Over My Head (if the domain isn’t taken already) That way it would still have the same feel and would be recognizable.
I also wanted to tell you that I have a blog hop that is open right now and I’d love it if you’d link up your posts there. I (along with four other fab bloggers) open up a blog hop every Sunday night at 8PM Central time. I hope to see you there!
I started a blog in October at http://cheyenne-style.blogspot.com/ some of my posts get more attention that others. I’ve been looking for tip posts like this one to try and grow my blog. In 2014 I wanted to put more effort into it. The best tips I’ve seen is to not expect too much in other words don’t get discouraged if you don’t wake up to thousands of followers one day.
Yes–the followers will not come right away so just keep writing awesome posts and they will come…eventually!
This is such awesome advice Carrie! I particularly love the first one “don’t compare” as that’s so natural with so many travel blogs out there. I hear content is king so I guess we just have to keep blogging about interesting travel things and find a way to share them well!
Thanks again!
You’re very welcome, Shraddha! I really believe comparison is the thief of joy & I have to remind myself not to compare. I’m glad this was helpful for you!
These are great tips! My sister and I started our blog in June and it’s getting traffic but not as much as we’d like right now. So far I’ve learned to just keep at it and remember that it’s my passion! Thanks for posting 🙂 come check us out at http://www.sparkandchemistry.com
Congrats on getting your blog started! It looks fabulous! One thing I’ve done recently that has helped my stats is going on more linky parties. Speaking of which, I have one that goes live every Sunday night at 8pm Central time. Your posts would fit in perfectly with our Frugal Crafty Home theme! Best of luck!
Carrie,
This was so encouraging! My blog is almost 6 months old and I honestly had NO idea what I was getting myself into. 🙂 It has been a huge learning process every step of the way (and it doesn’t help that I’m not the best when it comes to the technical side of things). I’m learning to give it time. I think I spent the first four months wanting to quit every single day. But ever so slowly, I’m hanging in there and realizing more and more how much fun it really is. Thank you for your tips! I’m not even sure I can answer the questions you asked because I’m still trying to figure it all out, but they are good questions to think about. I have a ton of questions, so maybe I can email you a few? Thanks again for sharing. I linked up at your blog hop for the first time today.
Yes Kimberly–feel free to email me some questions! I’m no expert but I’d love to help! Your blog looks great for only being at it for 6 months! I started blogging about a year ago and I didn’t know what I was getting myself into either! I thought I prepared myself well (which I did) but you never know what blogging is really like until your knee deep in it! I have had MANY times of feeling like I needed to give up but I’ve found ways to keep content fresh and exciting for me. I just want to encourage you to keep going as long as it’s enjoyable for you!
Thanks for the tips and resources! I’ve started blogging regularly in March, and I can’t help but compare myself to other blogs. I get traffic, but hardly any comments. I sort of feel like the tree falling in the woods, but I enjoy doing it enough that it hasn’t discouraged me entirely!
I love your blog Jackie! You do not look like a beginner blogger so be confident in what you’re doing. Your pictures are fabulous, I love the blog title and your content is really good. It looks like we have a lot in common! I sometimes get discouraged thinking I don’t have many comments, too. I’ve found that over time I’ve gotten more followers, comments, traffic, etc from Pinterest, joining linky parties and Bloglovin. Keep at it Jackie because your blog is really good!
You’re so sweet, thanks for the feedback and encouragement!
Sure thing Jackie! I’m glad to help!
I started a blog on infertility issues through wordpress.com
How do I publicize it on Pintrest? Do I have to start a whole new blog. I am so technology challenged!! Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!!
Hi Tiffany! Congratulations on starting a blog! I’m sure you’ll be helping lots of people that are dealing with the same issues.
No you do not need to start a whole new blog. You’ll just be “advertising” the posts you’ve already written on your existing blog. What I do is after I publish a post, I pin it to different Pinterest boards so that my followers can see them. For example, I pin all my posts to my blog board (it’s called Carrie This Home). If the post is a cookie recipe, I pin it to my blog board and my dessert board. If the post is about a DIY project, I pin it to my blog board and the For The Home board. Basically I pin my posts to all the boards with the same theme. If you don’t have a Pinterest account, I’d set one up and start pinning your posts because Pinterest can be a great traffic booster.
I hope that helps!
Thanks for these great tips! I am very new to blogging and have a question. If you had to chose only one between twitter and facebook, which would you use to help grow your blog and stay in touch with readers? I have twitter set up, but frankly i dont really get it.
That’s a great question! There’s a couple factors to consider. I would use the one that:
-Has more friends/followers(if it’s set up already)
-You’re most comfortable using
-You think your readers are more likely to use
For me Facebook has been a much better way to get the word out since I’ve been on it for so long. I have a separate Facebook page dedicated to my blog and I share each blog post on both my personal Facebook page and my blog page. Right now I have more friends on my personal FB but the blog page likes are slowly growing. I only started up a twitter account when I started my blog. I don’t really get Twitter, either 😉
I just checked out your blog and it looks great! Your pictures are great! We have a lot in common!
So the one word answer to your question is: Facebook.
I hope that helps, Corey!
Thanks for the advice. My gut was telling me the same. I’ll add it to my to do’s. Hahaha. I’ll find my way eventually!
Corey at tinysidekick.com
You’re welcome! I have a very long blog to-do list too! There’s just never enough time 😉
Hey Carrie,
Good tips! I am starting a blog and had a question for you. I’m using the Genesis child theme Vintage and I’m having the hardest time customizing the header. Since it is by the same designer as your theme(restored 316), I thought I’d see if maybe it was simialar and you had any tips! I know that the general layout of my header is much different, but I’m just talking about resizing and positioning the text. Can you point me the right direction?
By the way, your blog looks great!
Thanks!
I’m so excited to hear you’re starting a blog! I’d love to help! I do have some tips that will help. I’ve designed my header and a lot of my sidebar content on Picmonkey.com. I’ve also wanted to resize my header but haven’t figured out how to do it yet! So we may have to learn that together 😉 My blog board on Pinterest has a lot of tutorials on how to do things for blogs and a lot of that might be helpful for you. Sometime we should get together to work on it while the kids play. Sound good?
Great tips, Carrie! I started my blog back in 2011, but went on a hiatus while I was pregnant. I am going full force again and am loving it! Jenna @ Rain on a Tin Roof
Thanks a lot, Jenna! Your compliment means a lot to me since I’ve read and pinned a lot of your blogging advice 😉 I’m going to check out your post about keeping readers coming back right now! Thanks so much for stopping by!
I couldn’t agree more with this post. I started my craft blog a while ago but just started taking it more seriously since the start of this year… not comparing your blog to others is probably the BEST advice.
So glad you like it, Lauree! I’m really glad I got the advice to not compare to other bloggers from the beginning. It would have been much harder. Thanks so much for stopping by! I’m now following you on Pinterest 🙂
Great ideas! As a new blogger, I thank you for these tips!
You’re very welcome, Alicia! I’m really glad you found it useful. Your blog looks great so keep it up!
Great advice! I’ve been at it for a while now technically, but don’t have the consistency down. I really enjoy it, and hope to incorporate it more regularly into my life, but before I even think about sponsoring and such I think I just need to nail down the consistency aspect. And I really love the reminder not to compare yourself to those in their middles. Everyone started somewhere, and we forget that too quickly. Thanks for sharing all of this! 🙂
Thank you Christina! That means a lot since you’ve been at this for a lot longer! Consistency is something I’m working on too! Some weeks I do 3 posts and others I do 1. I like posting when I feel inspired but sometimes that makes me feel like I’m throwing things together. Thank you so much for stopping by 🙂
Thanks so much for the great tips! Pinned! I popped over from Inspire Me Please–thanks for sharing!
~Abby =)
Thanks so much for stopping by Abby! There’s so many great ideas at Inspire Me Please & I’m honored you took time to see mine! I’m following your blog via Facebook–looking forward to reading more!
Thanks for all of these tips… I have been blogging since 2009, but finally decided to get serious about it. I love the resource links you have provided. Thanks!
I’m so glad this was helpful! By the way you have a great name 😉 Thanks so much for stopping by, Carrie!