I get the question all the time, why did you start your blog? And the second most asked question is, how do you start a blog? I also get asked, why should I start a blog? I'm not going to answer the latter question here (that's a whole other post on its own) and while this post will not answer how to actually start a blog, hopefully you'll find the advice useful.
A few months ago, a good friend introduced me to her cousin (via email), who wanted to start a blog, and asked me to give her some advice. The long, long response I wrote back was motivation for this post. I have given the same general advice back to many people who have asked for initial advice when starting a blog and I thought I'd share it here.
**************A lot of what I know, I learned from others. For that I'm eternally grateful and I believe in paying it forward. Thanks to Lindsay for giving me a bunch of ideas for #2!
So here are聽five things I would tell you if you told me you're thinking about starting a blog…
Today photo from Shutterstock
1. Start now!! I mean right now.
I talked about starting a food blog for at least 6 to 7 months before I started The Little Kitchen. I kept telling my sister, Connie, that I wanted to start one. One of my excuses was I needed a ‘nice' camera and my sister said, “stop wasting time talking about it, just do it.” Best. advice. ever. I think I bought thelittlekitchen.net domain within a day after she said that to me and started the actual blog within a couple.
When starting a blog, it's impossible to learn everything you ‘think' you need to know, it's impossible to have the perfect site designed and laid out exactly the way you want and it's impossible to think of everything before starting. Those are the most important things I learned.
So my advice is don't waste time talking about it, doooo it. I have told everyone that will listen, my only regret is not starting my blog when I said I wanted to.
2. use wordpress
I'm not going to go into all of the blogging platforms and I won't go into the whys. I initially didn't start on WordPress but transferred my blog from another platform (I'm sure most people have never even thought what I used was even a blogging platform). I just tell anyone that asks to start on WordPress and self-host. If you can't start out by investing a little capital going the self-hosted route, start your blog on WordPress.com (it's free). But be sure to register the domain name that you want as soon as you decide on the name for your blog!
If you're using self-hosted WordPress, then you can install plugins. You don't want to overdo it and install five million plugins but there are a bunch that I love and can't live without. Here's a list of some of the ones I like:
- Akismet – catches spam comments so you don't have to use those awful recaptcha plugins for comments
- Comment Reply Notification – I actually wrote a quick tutorial聽for this plugin, it's a must have…it sends an email to a commenter if you reply to their comment.
- WordPress Database Backup聽– back up your database, back up all of your files. I can't say it enough, back everything up!
- RSS No More – it drives me nuts when I subscribe to a blog and the blogger truncates their RSS feed to just one or two sentences! Use this plugin to truncate your feed and give your readers a little bit more. It will cut it off at the “more” tag or wherever you place another “cut” tag. I use this plugin and cut the feed off right before the recipe. If you're worried about content scrapers, this will help a little bit because they can't scrape your entire post since you're truncating it. And it's a really good way to figure out if they are scraping your site via your RSS feed.
- some kind of contact form plugin聽or provide some way to contact you. You never know why someone would want to contact you. And you won't believe how many people have NO way to contact them on their blog. It's frustrating when you want to ask a question or contact them for a good reason!
Other WordPress and non-WordPress-related advice:
- Feedburner – or sign up for any kind of RSS syndication, especially if you're using Blogger or WordPress.com. Subscribers will not forward if you finally decide to switch to self-hosted WordPress or another blogging platform. Which means, you can lose a lot of subscribers. *Also, something I recently learned the hard way myself, if you're signing up for FeedBurner, be sure to use the same gmail or google account you signed up for AdSense or vice versa. If you ever decide to add AdSense ads to your feedburner feeds, you'll thank me.
- Sign up for a Gravatar account. If you want your blog logo or your photograph to show up when commenting on other WordPress blogs, sign up for it!
- Statistics – Use either WordPress stats or install聽google analytics. You'll be happy that you set up statistics from the beginning, you never know when you'll need to reference them.
- Image cropping – Crop and resize first, then upload. When I first started, I resized but the image was still pretty big. My site took a long time to load and I slowly cropped and resized smaller but even up until last year, I was using a file size that was too large and topping out the bandwidth in my hosting plan. Keep your images between 100 and 200 kilobytes (or even less than 100 kilobytes) and your site will load faster and you won't use up your bandwidth (which in some cases can bring your site down).
- Before I hired a designer to redesign The Little Kitchen, I actually used Thesis and customized it myself.
Social Media photo from Shutterstock
3. Sign up for at least two social networking sites.
And add the links to them in a prominent location on your site. When I first started, I signed up for twitter and found that I loved it. Later on, I created a fan page for my blog on facebook and loved being able to interact with people who read my blog but at the same time keep my personal profile private.
And of course, there is so much social media now and you can easily become overwhelmed. I'm on all of the above in the collage (instagram, Google+ & Pinterest) and I love it. Yes, that's a lot but I'm passionate obsessed with about social media and I love teaching others what I have learned along the way.
It's not just about self-promotion though on these social networking sites. Promote others and…
Keyboard photo from Shutterstock
4. build and foster community
Make friends, comment on blogs that you like to read. Teach others and learn from one another. Support each other and cheer each other on. We grow and become better people when we support each other. Each blogging genre has a community and whether you know it or not, when you start a blog, you join that community.
I had no idea I would join an amazing food blog community when I started this little ol' food blog. It's filled with generous people and I have been lucky to make some amazing friends.
Who are you? photo from Shutterstock
5. be genuine, be authentic & always be yourself
and be positive. I love blogging, the people I have met and the wonderful opportunities it has provided to me. I love being on social networking sites. What I always want to shine through is me. I'm not trying to be anyone but myself. I think it's very important that we're genuine.
You know as well as I do, it's very disappointing when looks are actually deceiving. I always want to be truthful and to share who I am. There's no reason for me not to. The best blogs that I enjoy are that way…and when I have the opportunity to meet a blogger in person and they are just as they seem online, it's very refreshing and invigorating. So just be you!
This by no means is a comprehensive list…if you're a blogger yourself, any advice you would add to my list?
Any questions, feel free to ask away!
Read my other {five things} posts.
Disclosure: There are a couple of affiliate links in this post.
Ghislaine says
Very useful post (first time on your blog). I’m starting a food blog and this post make me want to do more. I love that there is a community that is supportive in some way. Can’t wait to be part of that. Love from Gigi聽
Memoona Mazhar says
Hi , Love your post, and you are absolutely right should stop talking about it and just do it. The problem that I have is that I can be a perfectionist especially about something I’m very passionate about. So I want it to be perfect, I want to learn how to photograph food properly, how to write recipes perfectly and of course be able to do self host blog. so with all that I keep just talking about it and haven’t really started anything yet but after reading this I have a goal to have my blog launched by the end of this month. so all in all Thank YOU!!!
Heidi says
Great post! 聽Thank you! 聽I’m just in the process of starting my blog and this post had perfect timing. I can’t wait to hit publish!
Julie Deily says
Heidi, that’s awesome! Good luck to you! <3
Jamie says
I’m new to the food blogging industry – but love it already! Thanks for the helpful hints and advice!
rozana says
Hello,thanks a lot for sharing its realy helpful
I am sorry for my question but I still like to ask,could you please share with me private how much for example the food blog can you earn by month? for example you by your first year? and may now? sorry again I understand its too personal but I still hope to find out the true so I can do my decision to open up or not,its because I love to cook but I also want to be able be with my baby at home))) that’s why
Manidipa says
Thanks for sharing such useful tips. Starting a food blog is really very easy and if you have some special cooking skill like Baking, then one can make the most out of it.
Jessica @ Golden Brown and Delicious says
Hi Julie! Question…do you still recommend that version of the Comment Reply Notification plug-in? The page to install it says that it hasn’t been updated in more than 2 years and may not be compatible with my version of Wordpress (4.1).
I love blogs that send me an email when there is a reply to my comment, so I’d love to have that on my site as well, but I want to make sure I get the right version. Thanks!
Morgan Smith says
Thank you for the blog post. You have a lot of great advice there, #1 has got to be my favorite. I was scared of starting a blog for a long time and even now, it still scares me. But the joy of cooking and sharing what I’m making with the world far outweighs it! Happy I started and have continued to learn and grow and can only hope for more in the future.
Senorita Tijerina says
Thank you! I recently began a blog and after reading this I feel so much better. I pretty much said, “check, check, check, check, check.” I will be keeping an eye on your blog.
Best Regards,
Senorita Tijerina
Pamela says
I’m so glad I read this post! I just started a blog about a month and a half ago. I also had been thinking about it for about a year before I actually started it. No one I know is blogging so I have been reluctant to tell too many people yet since my blog still doesn’t have a lot of content I’ve been afraid people will think I’m crazy, and I don’t have a fancy camera either. I’m still feeling out how to do it. So it was encouraging to read that it really doesn’t have to perfect right off the bat. I have no following yet so I guess, really, now’s the time for trial and error!
Pam
Kimberly says
I am in the process of researching how to start a blog as I have been thinking about doing this for quite some time. There is SO much information out there, that I have to remind myself to start with the basics and grow from there. I found you comments helpful and simple, which gives me a good starting point. Thank you and I look forward to reading more of your posts!
Sandra Butler says
I’m just setting up my blog and I found this incredibly helpful! Thank you so much!
Christina says
Thanks Julie! I’m in the process of setting up my blog and came across this post. Very helpful! I am also in Orlando so I hope to meet you at an event or conference one day. You have an awesome blog.
Liz says
This makes me feel better. I actually started a blog this past weekend. I’m excited to see how it all goes.
Amanda McNeil says
This is so great! Wonderful advice that I will pass along! (and some widgets I will now go install!) Thanks, Julie!
Julie Deily says
So glad this helped you out, Amanda! 馃檪
AmyRuth says
Julie, I hope you are enjoying all the wonderful feedback! Isn’t it inspiring and fun. Thank you for all your great tips for those of us on the fence and still waiting to “DO’ it.
AmyRuth
Faaiza.O says
Thanks for that Julie. I’ve decided to go the free web hosting route for now and if traffic increases I’ll swap to something better. Thanks again for your post and Thanks for visiting my blog 馃檪
Faaiza.O says
I currently have a wordpress.com blog but have just purchased my domain, will be moving to wordpress.org very soon. This is an absolutely great post, extremely helpful, thanks for posting. The only question I would have is what are the costs involved with a self hosted blog?
Julie Deily says
Hi there, it really depends on who you use for your hosting service and how much bandwidth you need (depends on traffic), it can be $5 a month to upwards of $50 or $100 a month.
Linda says
Hi Julie,
Just got a chance to read this and this is awesome. I think every point you wrote is very meaningful, esp. feedburners and stats. I really enjoy Wordpress, compared to other sites, too. But, totally – you’ve motivated me!
Shanna@ pineapple and coconut says
I came across your blog today looking up recipes using candy corn m&ms for my blog, and I was thinking blondies of some sort and saw your recipe, and now I may make something different! I also started reading a ton of your posts. Love your blog. Love this post too. I had a blog on blogger for 3 years. I sort of stopped blogging as frequent since I was SO busy with a two year old and a new born. Now they are 2 and 4, and while still very busy, I decided to blog again. Totally started from the ground up. New name, new style everything. I was so torn between staying with blogger ( it was what I knew or so I thought) or switching to wordpress. I am kicking myself for not trying wordpress. All my favorite blogs are on wordpress, it seems one has more opportunities to make a living off a wordpress blog, and blogger has changed so much I hired someone to help design it, and its taking forever and I think I could have eventually figured it all out on my own. Saying that, is it hard to switch to wordpress?
Julie Deily says
For me it wasn’t hard when I did it myself but I have a technical background…I did however lose all of my comments. I think it’s important and worth the investment to hire someone who knows what they are doing to do it for you. You don’t want to lose any posts or comments and you want the links to not be broken (from pinterest, facebook or twitter), a professional would be able to redirect your blogger blog posts directly to the correct posts after you move to WordPress. Good luck!
Julie Vaden says
I just started my blog about a month ago and had actually talked about doing it for a year! Like you, I felt that I needed it to be perfect even before I started it. One night I was watchng Julie and Julia and it inspired me to sit at the computer and just do it. The name was so hard for me and even now I want to change it! LOL! This was such validating and perfect advice and information! Thank you!
Lisa | With Style and Grace says
This is great, Julie! I will certainly be directing some of my readers to this. I’ve been working on a post for a while about blogging and getting started because it’s the #1 question I get!
Kelly @ Texas Type A Mom says
Great advice! I agree that you need to start right away. There’s always something to learn and some way you can make your blog better but you’ll never know if you have what it takes to be a blogger until you try. And definitely start on WP right away and then you won’t have to worry about the headache of switching from Blogger to WP. Yes, it’ll cost you money from the get go but you should have faith in yourself and your blog that you can make it successful and it’ll be beneficial to you overall.
Kathleen says
Could not agree with this more, especially the one about starting on Wordpress. Wish I had!
Kelli @ The Corner Kitchen says
Great tips, Julie, and thanks for sharing!
I’m in the process of switching to a self-hosted Wordpress site….oh how I wish I started out that way.
Elise says
Great advice Julie!
Julie Deily says
Thank you so much, Elise! Hope you and Guy are doing well!
Stephanie says
These are some helpful tips. Thank you!
Sally says
Hi Julie! What a great post….still trying to move my blog and implement some of your tips 馃檨 but this is great information! How are you???? Hope you had a good summer.
Julie Deily says
Great to hear from you, Sally! I’m doing well and very busy! Hope you’re doing well too and I hope to get to see you soon at a food blog conference. 馃檪
Radina says
Very good advice 馃檪 I’m just getting started 馃槈
Angie says
What great tips!
Tiff @ Babes and Kids says
These are fantastic tips. I like your very first tip. You aren’t going to get anywhere if you don’t start! I also agree with wordpress, it’s a great platform. Great article!
Jenn says
Good tips! So many of them I had to learn the hard way.
Stephanie @ Eat. Drink. Love. says
GREAT advice, Julie!
Kristina~Former Chef says
Great tips! This is much the same advice I give people.
For me, first and foremost is “register your domain name”. If you don’t own your name, you could lose it later when you do want it.
Also, if you go the free blog route, you lose all your stats when you switch to self hosted (learned this the hard way).
Russell at Chasing Delicious says
Great post! This will be so helpful for all the newbies looking to break into this wonderful community.
Tasha @ ThatsSoYummy says
Julie, these are some GREAT tips… 馃槈
Aggie says
Great post Julie!
Jen @ BeantownBaker.com says
Great tips Julie!
Sara Phillips says
Thanks! I have been blogging for a little over a year and I am still learning LOTS! The one plug in I couldn’t live without is the Socalize one! <3 that thing!
Julie Deily says
Good point! I didn’t think about social plugins because I have social share buttons integrated into my theme. Thanks, Sara!
addie @ culicurious says
Great advice, Julie 馃檪
Stephanie @ Macaroni and Cheesecake says
These are all great tips!
Ali | Gimme Some Oven says
Such a great post! I love and agree with all these tips. 馃檪 Definitely bookmarking this to forward to potential bloggers!!!
Kelly Senyei says
LOVE this post, Julie!
Henrietta says
These are great tips! You’ve put into words what I couldn’t when friend ask how to blog!
Tara @ Unsophisticook says
Great tips! And I found a few new-to-me plugins that I’m going to check out. Thanks!
Erin @ Texanerin Baking says
This is all great advice! And can I just say that I HATE it when people truncate their posts to nothing at all or just a sentence? Those blogs just don’t get read by me.
I’m on Blogger and wish that it had some of those amazing sounding plug-ins. I have to admit that I’m pretty comfy with it and don’t really want to change. So I’m sure this post will be super helpful for people who haven’t started yet!
Meagan @ Scarletta Bakes says
I SO value and appreciate this post, Julie! New bloggers will benefit from each piece of advice, and ‘old’ ones, such as myself, can benefit as well (I didn’t have the comment notification plugin either – I do now thanks to you!). Thank you so much for such a helpful post!!
Julie Deily says
Yay, Meagan! I can’t wait to see you tomorrow! 馃檪
Carolyn says
All wonderful advice, Julie. Spot on, as always!
amy @ fearless homemaker says
This is such an awesome list! I wish I had seen something like this before I started blogging – so much fantastic info, Julie!
Jai says
Really good advice. I’ll have to check out those addons. A couple there that I wasn’t familiar with. Thanks!
Christine says
I am not a blogger, but I love reading lots and lots of blogs. I read all of them through Google Reader and I really appreciate the advice to not truncate the RSS feed. I will not add a blog to my Google Reader if it’s truncated because I often read them on my smart phone and it’s way easier to just stay in Google Reader to read them.
Julie Deily says
Good to hear from you, Christine. I know a lot of bloggers who feel the same way as you.
Dana says
I’m so glad I found your post Julie!! I’m a newbie to food blogging =))
Lindsay says
Thank you so much for this post! I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a blog since I graduated college and you helped me go for it!
Julie Deily says
That’s pretty awesome to hear, Lindsay. When you start it, will you send me the link so I can check it out? 馃檪
Eliana says
Such awesome advice! Great post.
Alison @ Ingredients, Inc. says
wow you nailed this! Great post girl
JamericanSpice / Colette S says
Very good tips!
Paula - bell'alimento says
Great list Julie!
Deb says
These are great tips and the exact thing I tell others when they want to start a blog. I also tell them blogs can be as much or as little work as they want 馃槈 For me personally, it’s a lot of work, but this is what I do for a living. For others, their blog is their hobby and takes very little time. It really can be exactly what you want it to be. Thanks for sharing these fab tips.
Julie Deily says
You’re so right on, Deb! Thanks!
Kiersten @ Oh My Veggies says
Oh, I so wish I had started on WP from the get-go. So many people underestimate where there blogs will take them–I never thought mine would be anything more than a hobby, so I started it on Blogger.
Sommer@ASpicyPerspective says
Great tips Julie, I’ll have to look into that Feed Lengthen-er. Hadn’t heard of that!
Brian @ A Thought For Food says
All of these are amazing tips! Well put!
shelly (cookies and cups) says
Great post Julie! I’m not sure if I have the comment notification plugin! I need to look. For some reason I just assumed I did…eek!
I agree on all the points you hit. I, too, get a number of these emails every month…I can just direct them here now!
Julie Deily says
Thanks, Shelly! 馃檪 Let me know if you need help setting up that plugin!
Nicole Robinson says
These are some great tips. Sometimes the need to foster community can be overshadowed by the many other things needed to get a blog up and running. But fellowship is key to growing and really enjoying your blog.
Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen says
I wish I had someone tell me all these things when I first started out, this is going to be a great starting point for a lot of future bloggers.
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com says
Great tips, Julie! And I agree with you on being “yourself” and as authentic!
saph@frugalwifeblog says
Great post and tips! I use the ReplyMe comment plugin. It helps so much to reply to someone and they know that someone replied.
Julie Deily says
I use the Comment Reply Notification plugin for that. I like that I can configure what the email looks like.
Diane {Created by Diane} says
I just LOVE all your advice, it’s so helpful and I better get going on some of these tips 馃檪
Kenyatta Rodriguez says
This is great information! I am definitely going to add the RSS no more plug in. I’ve heard that feed burner will soon be no more. Have you heard anything?
Julie Deily says
I’m kind of not sure what’s going to be the fall out, I moved my RSS email subscriptions from FeedBurner a long time ago and just switched to a self-hosted feed…I don’t think it’s safe to 100% depend on feedburner anymore unfortunately. I should update this post!
megan @ whatmegansmaking says
Love this list Julie! You clearly have learned a lot in the time you’ve been blogging. And I always love your willingness to pay it forward as you said, and share your knowledge with the masses 馃檪
Jeanette says
I wish I had these tips when I started my blog! I’ve learned so much in the process as well and am still learning.
Kim L says
Great tips!! Thanks
Ann says
Great advice I’m forwarding this to my friend–we were just talking & she said “oh I have to start one, one of these days.”
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious says
Great post! I wish I had read this before I started out!
And yes, we have such an awesome foodie community and I’m so glad to have met you (virtually). I hope I get to see you in person some day!
Julie Deily says
Me too! Are you going to any food blog conferences next year? So far, I know I’m attending BlogHer Food in Austin. 馃檪
Miss @ Miss in the Kitchen says
Julie you are the best! Thanks for sharing this. So much to learn I am totally adding a couple of these plugins that I’ve been looking for. Great information and I love the part about being yourself, it is so true. Humans are curious and we love to know other’s stories.
Rachel@SmallStepsOnOurJourney says
AWESOME post, Julie! So true about wordpress – I wish I would have started there first. Great advice about the plugins too – askimet is INCREDIBLE!!
Mikkel says
Love it Julie! I will definitely install some of those plugins when I switch to Wordpress soon! I would recommend people blog consistently if a goal is to have followers. Easier said than done, and I’m guilty of inconsistency, but I have noticed those who stick with it have more success.
Maria says
Great tips! Especially the one about starting it as soon as you realize you want to. I’m sure I’ll come back to this whenever someone asks me about starting a blog. 馃檪
lauren @ this little moon says
Solid advice! 馃檪
Re: #2 / Image Cropping: I found a WordPress plug-in aptly titled “Resize images before upload” — which does exactly what it says, automatically, so you don’t have to! You can set the max dimensions you want it to allow images to have, adjust the compression if you want, and there’s even a little check box you can uncheck in the upload box in case you do want to upload a certain image at full resolution! It’s pretty fantastic.
Liz @ A Nut in a Nutshell says
You’re so full of great advice and your enthusiasm just shines through. I’m guilty of truncating to a few sentences, but I got burned on scraping for so long that I went that route. I do have a thumbnail pic in my feed though which I think makes it look a tad bit better, but who knows? xo Julie!
Julie Deily says
Aww thanks, Liz!! xo back to you!
michelle @ The Village Cook says
You are spot on!!! 馃檪 I wish you wrote this years ago before (our) blogs existed! I’m glad you’re sharing the ins % outs in a simple way to inspire new peeps. 馃檪 xoxox to you, Julie!
Stacy @ Cupcake Crusaders says
Great advice! A friend recently asked me about blogging, and this is a perfect comprehensive start up list of things to think about. I’m going to send to her ASAP. Thanks!
Jenn @therebelchick says
These are really fantastic tips! My aunt wants to start blogging and I am going to recommend that she read this post!
Liz @ The Lemon Bowl says
Great article with so many great tips!! Just installed two of your suggested plugins. Thanks so much!!!
Jan Rossi says
Great tips! Good thoughts about that RSS feed. I will have to check and see what I am doing in that area.
Pinterest is hugely powerful now and adding unique images to each blog post will allow it to be pinned and shared easily. So, don’t forget gorgeous photos!
Happy blogging!
Judy @FromHometoRoam says
Thanks for this great post. I just started my travel blog two months ago. Luckily I had a great blogger friend who recommended to me that I make the investment and start on WordPress and I have an amazing hubby who agreed to pay for that. Your other advice is very helpful and encouraging. I need to sign up for Gravatar!! Right now my biggest struggle is setting aside a set time in the day to work on the blog rather than hopping on and off all day. Ahh….the joys and challenges of blogging!
Julie Deily says
Very awesome, Judy! So glad to hear this! If you have the passion, you’ll always find the time or make the time. That’s what I found early on.
Rachel @ Baked by Rachel says
Great tips Julie! Everyone needs someone to look to for answers when they’re starting out, in the early days and even after that!
EatLocalOrlando says
great post Julie! I might pass it along to the next person who asks me
Brenda @ a farmgirl's dabbles says
Excellent post, Julie!!
vaishali says
Oh Julie…thanks for this post. I have been thinking about my own blog for almost a year now. This post gives me courage and some basic guidelines. Thanks!
Julie Deily says
That’s so awesome to hear!
Susan in the Boonies says
Julie: I’m switching from Blogger to WordPress right now, so I REALLY value this post! Thank you so much! I’ve bookmarked it!
Julie Deily says
I’m so glad you found it helpful, Susan! 馃檪
Chris says
Such an informative post, Julie! I have a domain (SensibleKitchn) I have been sitting on for over a year. I really want to create my own blog – at this point, I am just a contributor to Nestl茅 Kitchens. Hoping to scale my workload down so I can focus on my very own blog 馃檪 One day! Thank you for all the tips & insight. (By the way, I am working with Diane & Todd Sept 20 – I know you are great friends with them!)
Julie Deily says
Hi Chris, you should just do it! Even if you just start it on wordpress.com and redirect your domain to it for now. 馃檪 Hope you had fun with Diane & Todd…I love them so much! We’re going to meet in person one day, Chris! 馃檪
Kathryn says
Some really helpful advice! I sort of wish I’d started with wordpress rather than blogger (although now I’m on blogger I’m way too lazy to switch!)
DessertForTwo says
What a great article! I wish I knew these things 3 years ago when I started a blog! 馃檪
Jenna@LittleKitchenBigFlavors says
Love it! You mentioned some great plug-ins that I can’t wait to check out. Thanks for this insight!
Crista says
GREAT post! 馃檪
I read a book (You’re Broke Because You Want To Be) and the book talked about how you should stop spending money on material good but keep spending your money on things that make you smarter. While I am not spending money to blog, I do know that it takes a lot of knowledge, thought & research to create a blog post. I’m getting smarter on the subjects I write about….. anyway, I had this conversation with a friend last night and for some reason I chose to share this in the comment section of your blog this morning lol 馃檪
Maria says
Great post! I am so happy you started your blog:)
Sandy Coughlin says
Really good advice, Julie. I’m going to pass this on to a few friends who want to start blogs! 馃檪
Jen M O says
I really like your advice. I think the best part of blogging is capturing your life and an easy way to find recipes.
Renee - Kudos Kitchen says
All good advice! I still don’t use WP but have been contemplating on making the switch. My blog is more just a hobby for me and a way to collect my recipes and take my photos in a fun format. That said, I do love to see it grow and make new friends. Keeping it real has proved to be something I really strive for. Love all the good tips. Thanks Julie!
Laura (GotChocolate) says
Excellent advise, Julie! I need to work on my image cropping for sure.
Thanks!
cassie says
This is a fabulous post, Julie! I love the idea of paying it forward! You are wonderful.
Leslie says
Question for you Julie..whit ht comment notification, where do you reply to the commenter? on your blog or through email? And does the reply show up on the blog as well?
Julie Deily says
Reply on the blog, the best way is in your dashboard, underneath each comment is a link to Reply. When you do that, they will receive an email and it will appear on your blog! That way, they don’t have to return to see if you answered their question or if they forgot they asked…the answer ends up in their inbox. 馃檪
Leslie says
Ohhh< i totally need that comment notification! Thanks for the tips Julie!!!!!
Bunkycooks says
Great advice. Starting with free WP is definitely the way to go until you want to make the financial commitment to have someone do a site for you or you are able to do it yourself. I also completely agree about being yourself. We have discussed this many times. There is always a natural evolution to a blog and it takes time to discover your own voice and find your niche. However, If you change who you are to get traffic or hits, you lose your authenticity and may risk losing readers.
Julie Deily says
Totally agree, Gwen! So glad we’re friends! 馃檪
Averie @ Averie Cooks says
This is an awesome post – from use Comment Reply Notification (I agree 100%!!) to use Wordpress to start now to get involved with the community and put yourself out there and cheer each other on. We’re all bloggers and supporting each other is the only way to go!