How To Start A Blog

Background

If you’re like me, you’ve always wanted to start a blog. Or… If you’re really like me you started one 13 years ago, forgot about it, then found it again today. I’m having a nice laugh about it. Especially the post about how I couldn’t wait until summer.

So grateful 🙏 I didn’t have Facebook or Instagram back then. I would have posted the strangest stuff and people might have actually seen it. Whenever I post anything now I still have a vision of my head of school condescendingly telling us, “anything you post on the internet is permanent.” Good advice. If I posted everything I thought about at 12 online I would have to live under a rock because of the shame.

I’m 25 now, in the middle of a “not fully a lockdown” lockdown here in California and thought… I always wanted to do this and the best time would be today.

Below is my first post on how to start a blog; here we go.

How to start a blog?

First… What is a blog?

I like to think of a blog like a digital diary where someone or a small group of people can share thoughts, photos, videos, and mixed media with others online.

Now, since blogs can make actual money, they have transformed into a not only a marketing tool but also a way for communities to come together around common interests. In digital marketing courses, they emphasize the importance of having a blog to increase your inbound digital footprint and drive traffic to your site.

Internet’s definition

A website where entries are written chronologically and usually displayed with the most recent post first. 

What you need to start a blog

1.  Something to write about
2. A device with internet connection, preferably a computer 
3. A blogging platform

Depending on your ambition/ blog needs you also need a web-hosting platform and a domain name for your blog. The main sites people use for this are WordPress (97% of blogs), Wix, Joomla, medium, ghost, Squarespace, Weebly, and blogger (where my first blog is). They all have pros and cons, which you can learn about here. If you do choose wordpress, there is a difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org. Which is explained well here.

This is a wordpress site and if you want to work in wordpress here is a great video by website learners that shows how. #Notsponsored just a recommendation, I found their guide to be incredibly useful.

Aside from that it’s time to just write your heart out, come up with interesting content, and if you want people to read it learn more about how to utilize tools such as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to get the word out. Going to learn more about those marketing tools, so people might actually read my blog this time. SEO will be the theme of my next post.

-Ariel