Tips for New Bloggers | Blogging 101

Believe it or not, I’ve been blogging for 4 years, 2 of which have been on Megan Elizabeth Lifestyle. However, my early blogging days were far different. I had no social media accounts and I only used the free WordPress platform. Fast forward 4 years and we see a big change. My blog is self-hosted, and I am an avid social media user. Naturally, this did not happen overnight. There’s a lot of studying involved in the blogging process. With that in mind, I’m sharing my tips for new bloggers.

Tips for New Bloggers

Research

Before you start a blog, there’s a lot to find out. What blogging platform should you use? The most affective ways to use social media? Is self-hosted right for me?

The biggest question of all is what do you want to get out of your blog? If you want your blog to be more private, like an online diary, then I’d suggest the free wordpress.com package. It’s easy to use and there are plenty of free designs to choose from. However, if you want to take things up a notch, then self-hosted is the way to go. It’s not worth upgrading for a premium or business plan on WordPress because they do less for more money. You can pay a small amount per month for a webhost and have access to plugins, great designs and more.

Plan

After deciding your platform, I’d recommend planning before making your blog public. Make sure you have posts ready when your blog launches so visitors have plenty to read.

Getting some good stationery to plan out your blogging is ideal. Not only do you have a reason to buy stationery (which is awesome), but it’s nice to work on your blog without looking at a screen. Any excuse for pastel highlighters!

Scheduling tools for social media also come in handy here. I use Buffer for Twitter and Tailwind for Pinterest. You don’t have to spend all day promoting your blog on social media. I just schedule tweets etc. in the morning and then that gives me more time to engage with others and go out without having to post to social media constantly.

Planning time to engage with other bloggers is vital, especially when you’re new. Commenting on posts and social media and taking part in Twitter chats are just some of the ways to get you and your blog out there. What’s more, the blogging community is supportive, so giving back is important.

Things not to do

When planning out this tips for new bloggers post, I realised that my ideas were aimed at you should be doing. Like with most things though, there is stuff to avoid when setting up a blog.

1. Never ever follow for a follow. This is one of my pet peeves of the blogging world. Only follow someone if you’re genuinely interested in their content and likely to engage with them.

2. Avoid follow and RT giveaways. This might seem like a great idea to gain followers, but a) most will unfollow after the giveaway ends and b) bribing is bad. Kerry, Life and Loves did a post explaining this in detail.

3. Never complain about getting less likes or view etc. on a particular day. You’ll have good days and bad days. There’s nothing more annoying than people moaning about a lack of viewers. It’s unfair to expect others to spend their entire time scrolling through Twitter or Instagram liking your posts.

Patience

We’ll wrap up with one of my main tips for new bloggers. That is, patience. Don’t expect to gain thousands of followers and get sponsored post requests overnight. That kind of success takes time and effort, which you need to be willing to put in. Bloggers who are lucky enough to go full-time have usually been blogging for years.

Anyway, in my opinion, you should blog first and foremost because you love it. If you get to earn money, work with brands, and have lots of followers, then that’s a bonus. Take time to think why you are starting your blog and if it’s for the right reasons.

Megan x