After one year of blogging -1st September is the birthday of this blog- I will tell you how I have come from zero to this point where I connected with thousands of people and I opened my online photography shop.
So do you want to write a blog but you don’t have any damn idea? Don’t you know where or how to start? There are a lot of things you want to express and share of yourself but you don’t know how to do? When you read some articles or posts, are you saying “damn I thought this before!” or “ I already knew it” or “I could write better”?
Fellows! I understand you very well. For years I was feeling exactly like that. I didn’t know anything about computer and software, but I wanted to write a blog. I only knew how to use Facebook, and some basic Microsoft Office programs. But managing a blog for me was far worse than crossing the ocean swimming. It was as difficult as I couldn’t even try it.
How others are doing it anyway?
After a while I discovered all the people I know blogging are either computer engineers or web designers. So the answer is clear hah! The people who is blogging and managing the blog by themselves have the capacity to do that. Don’t believe all these bullshit they write on the internet making you think that you can set up a blog and you are ready in 10 minutes. May be they are talking about the time to download the WordPress but that’s just the starting.
What can you do?
If you are not capable to create your own blog, you should to be able to do one of these below:
#1 You can learn how to manage a blog. You can go to a course to learn how to build design and manage a website. Of course it will take some time and you will need some knowledge and talent, but If you want to be independent and to be able to do everything by yourself that’s the way.
#2 MONEY. There are thousands of people working for making professional websites and managing them. If you hire somebody to design and manage your website, you will only need to write your content.
No? There is no money? Fine. There is one more option to do it.
#3 If you don’t have talent nor knowledge and you want to reach your target faster without spending money, you should ask help from somebody has computer skills or working with computers. Surely there is somebody, a family member, a friend or husband/wife has knowledge to show you how to manage your blog. He/she can show you how to do it easier with some ready blogging websites.
Writing a post is not a piece of cake
If you want just to write a blog and publish your private diary, that’s easy, you don’t have any responsibility, no rush, no optimization, no problem. But bear in mind that blogging for the public is not something so easy.
Creating an amazing blog post takes a whole lot more than just decent writing skills and a compelling topic. To find the right way, you will need to spend a lot of time over your article.
You don’t need to be perfect writer! In internet world people are looking for information, not for reading a book, but the way you write down that information and what are you going to say to your readers is extremely important.
If you google a bit you will realize that a lot of articles about blogging says that you should publish an article at least once in a week, even more than one. They are totally correct saying this because it keeps high the attention of your audience.
What about having visitors?
Once you are able to publish good posts, if you do care about how many readers you have, you will start to care many other aspects very important to make your blog not one more random website with 10 visitors per month.
You need to optimize your post and it needs specific knowledge. Those famous tree letters, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), took my months to remember the name, is the way to get your blog noticed.
Nowadays mobile devices are taking more and more shares of internet web traffic, people using mobile devices are more than ever. Be sure your page display correctly on a smartphone, it has to be fast and responsive.
You should connect social medias with your blog such as having a good Facebook Page, caring how you are using your Twitter account and you should make easy for your visitors sharing your content.
Sum Up
Blogging is an another world and it is a big job. If you are not ready for searching, writing, checking, optimizing, sharing, don’t start on it. You will need a lot of time. It is hard to believe when some bloggers say that they write and publish a post in one hour. In my opinion writing quality content takes time and more if all your content and pictures is produced by yourselves and not poorly copied from google.
In this one year I have learned a lot of things about blogging and still there are many more to learn. When I started I didn’t know it was going to be this much effort and going to take so much of my time. Also it is incredible how the blogging experience can open your eyes and even somehow change your social environment.
Now it is your turn! What is your blogging experiences? Did you struggle doing it like me?