5 Things You Should Know Before Starting A Blog

So you wanna start a blog? (Or already have one and like reading these “things you should know before starting a blog” posts anyway?) Awesome-sauce! A new month means a new blogging-tips post! When I started my first blog (#tbt to Dipped In Gold), I had no idea how much I would come to value and love blogging. Ever since starting G&J, I really consider blogging a hobby of mine now and am excited to see what it could grow into. The blogging community is amazing because everyone is so driven, creative, inspired and inspirational. People want to help each other up, not compete, which I think is super cool. You’ve probably read 5 million lists like this one…. and at least 4.3 million of them say something or another about setting up hosting or about finding your voice. I’m going try to make this list different. Here are five things you should know before starting a blog, based off my very own experience. 1. A blog takes time. Like a lot of time. Between setting everything up, which you can get help with from blog design services, post writing, picture taking, photo editing, social media-ing, and url spreading, blogging takes a lot of time. But if you love it, you’ll quickly find it’s well worth the time investment. It can be tempting to jump on the first services you come across to grow your following, but take the time to read a Social captain review or whichever service you’re looking to use before committing.2. A little money goes a long way. Tons of bloggers swear by never paying a dime for anything but their url. I’m going to slightly disagree with this philosophy. While you don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars for fancy hosting, investing even just $30 in a blog theme at the start can have big pay-offs. There is hosting with free ssl that you can also consider that’ll help your blog to launch and hardly ever go down. I’ve also recently discovered the magic of paying for Facebook Ads (even just $1 a day makes a difference!). It all depends on what you want though, if you really like the idea of having your own domain name then you should get it, why not check out something like Domain names – free UK transfers to help get you started on that. Even though it’s not something I would do, I know a lot of people really like doing it that way. 3. Choose a topic and choose that topic wisely. My first blog fell flat because it was too all over the place. Even the most eclectic “lifestyle” bloggers have some theme uniting their content. Choose something you’re really passionate about; this’ll guarantee that you’ll never run out of fun and new post ideas. 4. Do not be in it to win it. Honesty hour: you really should not start a blog if all you want is free stuff or impressive GoogleAnalytics. While those things are indeed fun, they’ll come in time if you put in the work and truly care about what you’re saying to your readers. 5. All those things about organisation are true. While you don’t actually have to have an official blogging schedule and full blog queue, having a neat notebook for on-the-fly post ideas can be a lifesaver. And there it is! 5 things you should know before starting a blog. What’s your #1 blogging tip? Related: Bloggin’ Tips: What Makes An Awesome Blog and How To Advertise Your Blog (and not be super annoying)