Tips for new bloggers

Entering the blogosphere for the first time can be a daunting prospect. There seems to be thousands of articles and blog posts online that guarantee they have the best blogging advice and they all contradict each other. This blog post is different from the rest because I’m not here to tell you exactly what you need to do to make your blog go viral with step by step instructions. Instead, I have put together some helpful blogging tips I’ve learned while studying Internet Communications and blogging that will make setting up a new blog easy.

Develop your blog’s identity and theme

Your first task is to take some time to develop your blog’s identity and theme. Decide what you will be blogging about and then make sure all of your blog’s features match that identity. The name of your blog, the blogging platform you select, the layout and colours you select, and the topics you write about, should all reflect your blog’s overall identity and theme.

A great way to help you work out your blog’s identity and theme is to write a detailed ‘About’ section on your blog. Your ‘About’ section should include information about who you are, why you blog, and the kinds of things you will blogging about.

You can choose to keep your true identity private by choosing a pseudonym and developing your blog’s identity and theme around that. Using a pseudonym provides a lot of scope for creativity as you will need to create an entirely new character!

Get Social

Select the social media platforms that best suit your blog’s identity and theme.

Facebook and Twitter are good social media platforms to connect with readers due to their popularity, although Facebook can be difficult to build traction unless you are prepared to pay for advertising.

Instagram is fantastic if you enjoy taking your own photos and there are a lot of active blogging communities there.

Take some time to search for hashtags and topics that are relevant to your blog on different social media platforms to get a better idea of where people who are interested in the same things as you like to hang out.

Most digital professionals recommend that you should have at least three social media platforms connected to your blog. Three platforms is a good amount for most bloggers, but the amount of social media platforms you choose should really be however many you feel comfortable with. Many bloggers are perfectly happy to simply blog with no social media accounts at all.

Once you have selected your social media platforms make sure they reflect your blog’s identity and theme and are connected to your blog. Use the same colours in your social media cover images and condense your blog’s ‘About’ section to fit in your social media bios.

Connect with other bloggers

Once you have developed your blog’s theme and identity and set up your social media accounts it’s time to connect with other bloggers. If you are using a blogging platform that has a connected news feed such as WordPress or Blogger, start by searching for topics that are relevant to your blog and get reading.

Reading other blogs will help you with your own blog because it will give you an idea of what topics are relevant to your readers. When you come across an interesting blog post make sure you hit the like and follow buttons and leave a comment to let the blogger know how much you enjoyed their post. You will also find lots of blogs to read on social media using the same method.

It’s impossible to read every blog post every day, but when you do spend time reading other blogs you will find that leaving relevant and thoughtful comments will inspire most bloggers to come and have a look at your blog too.

Develop a posting schedule that works for you

It’s a good idea to develop a posting schedule that will work best for you. Some bloggers post every day, some post once or twice a week, and some post whenever they have time. Make sure your posting schedule fits in with your current schedule and do your best to stick to it. Setting yourself blogging deadlines will help you to plan ahead and manage your blogging time better.

I hope these tips help you get started on developing a blog that you love. Taking time to develop your blog’s identity and theme, setting up your social media accounts, connecting with other bloggers, and developing a posting schedule, will help you decide on the blogging choices that will work best for you.