five things I would tell you if you told me you’re thinking about starting a blog
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 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 for this plugin, it's a must have…it sends an email to a commenter if you reply to their comment.
- WordPress Database Backup – 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 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 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.
Great post and tips! I use the ReplyMe comment plugin. It helps so much to reply to someone and they know that someone replied.
I use the Comment Reply Notification plugin for that. I like that I can configure what the email looks like.
I just LOVE all your advice, it’s so helpful and I better get going on some of these tips 🙂
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?
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!
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 🙂
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.
Great tips!! Thanks
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.”
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!
Me too! Are you going to any food blog conferences next year? So far, I know I’m attending BlogHer Food in Austin. 🙂
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.
AWESOME post, Julie! So true about wordpress – I wish I would have started there first. Great advice about the plugins too – askimet is INCREDIBLE!!
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.
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. 🙂
Solid advice! 🙂
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.
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!
Aww thanks, Liz!! xo back to you!
You are spot on!!! 🙂 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. 🙂 xoxox to you, Julie!
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!
These are really fantastic tips! My aunt wants to start blogging and I am going to recommend that she read this post!
Great article with so many great tips!! Just installed two of your suggested plugins. Thanks so much!!!
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!
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!
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.
Great tips Julie! Everyone needs someone to look to for answers when they’re starting out, in the early days and even after that!
great post Julie! I might pass it along to the next person who asks me
Excellent post, Julie!!
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!
That’s so awesome to hear!
Julie: I’m switching from Blogger to WordPress right now, so I REALLY value this post! Thank you so much! I’ve bookmarked it!
I’m so glad you found it helpful, Susan! 🙂
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 Nestlé Kitchens. Hoping to scale my workload down so I can focus on my very own blog 🙂 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!)
Hi Chris, you should just do it! Even if you just start it on wordpress.com and redirect your domain to it for now. 🙂 Hope you had fun with Diane & Todd…I love them so much! We’re going to meet in person one day, Chris! 🙂
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!)
What a great article! I wish I knew these things 3 years ago when I started a blog! 🙂
Love it! You mentioned some great plug-ins that I can’t wait to check out. Thanks for this insight!
GREAT post! 🙂
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 🙂
Great post! I am so happy you started your blog:)
Really good advice, Julie. I’m going to pass this on to a few friends who want to start blogs! 🙂
I really like your advice. I think the best part of blogging is capturing your life and an easy way to find recipes.
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!
Excellent advise, Julie! I need to work on my image cropping for sure.
Thanks!
This is a fabulous post, Julie! I love the idea of paying it forward! You are wonderful.
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?
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. 🙂
Ohhh< i totally need that comment notification! Thanks for the tips Julie!!!!!
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.
Totally agree, Gwen! So glad we’re friends! 🙂
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!