Starting a new blog is so exciting, but also so much work! Here is great advice for new bloggers and what I have learned on my journey thus far.
At the time of this post, I’ve been blogging for about 8 months now. I am still a new blogger, but I have had some success up to this point.
It was slow to start, but after about 4 months, I started to see some money trickle in. Check out this post for great money saving tips for moms.
I am far from being able to quit my day job and honestly, I’m not sure I will ever want to quit my day job.
I enjoy what I do but I also enjoy blogging. For now, I’m going to continue both and see where this road leads me.
I can’t even begin to tell you all the things I have learned since I began my blog. I did a TON of research before I even started… I’m not kidding when I say that I researched blogging and how to start a blog for about 6 months before I finally took the plunge. I read so many articles on blogging. Some of the advice for new bloggers was helpful and others were not so helpful.
I am so happy I finally started blogging, but I’m not going to lie, it’s a lot of work. Much more work and time than I ever anticipated.
So, don’t be fooled by those people telling you they work 4 hours a day and make 6 figures… they maybe do, but that is NOT how they started out!
Take some advice from a real person (and a new blogger) that is working hard and NOT making 6 figures on their blog (that’s me)! Read on for advice that I have for new bloggers.
*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a percentage (at no extra cost to you) if you make a purchase through a link that I have shared. I am an Amazon Affiliate.
To start off, here are a couple things to keep in mind when starting a blog:
- It takes time to see progress. This is not a get-rich-quick type of business. There are some days when you are wondering if what you are doing is reaching anyone and if it is beneficial. Don’t quit on the bad days. Just keep chugging along. If you work hard and keep pushing forward, you can see results over time.
- There will be people who will disagree with you and your ideas. Ignore them and move on. I had a hard time with that in the beginning. I am a people pleaser and it’s hard to let go of negativity if you are a people pleaser.
- Take the time to setup your blog the right way. It will save you time in the long run.
- Have fun and don’t compare yourself to others! Everyone is at a different spot in their journey both of life and blogging. You can’t compare.
- Find a routine that works for you and do that! You need to do what is sustainable.
Advice for new bloggers:
- Use talk-to-text on your phone.
- I like to create notes in my phone for different posts and do talk-to-text as I think of ideas.
- I seem to think of the best ideas when I am away from my computer and doing something else. This is a great way to get those ideas down.
- Use technology to your advantage!
- Batch jobs.
- I seem to be more productive if I batch jobs. I like to create a couple of week’s worth of Pinterest posts at once. Then I can schedule them on Tailwind to be posted.
- I like to make out lines for several different posts at once.
- Check out this post for other great time saving tips.
- Create outlines.
- It is so much faster to type up a blog post if you have an outline.
- It also seems like once my creative writing juices start to flow, it’s easy to just keep going and creating outlines.
- Create a routine that works for you.
- Routines really help me to be more productive.
- It’s sometimes hard to create a great routine when you have kids at home. The time I have varies from day to day based on what my kids need. Even though I’m not sure how much time I will have, I still have a routine. I like to work on Pinterest posts and promote my blog one day, update old blog posts another day, creating new posts another day, and then all other tasks another day (emails, creating printables, etc.). This way I am making sure I am getting everything done that needs to be.
- Ask for help.
- Fellow bloggers love to make connections and help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or feedback.
- Make connections with other bloggers that are at various points of their blogging journey. You can learn from them and you can help eachother along the way.
- As you get further in your blogging journey, don’t forget to help other bloggers in return!
- Make sure you take breaks.
- It’s easy to get so caught up in the excitement of a new blog, creating content, and making your blog the best it can be. I found myself wanting to work on my blog ever spare second I had. I needed to force myself to take breaks and spend time with my family instead of constantly working on my blog.
- It’s like anything in life, it’s great to be excited but don’t forget to step away and take a break sometimes too. You don’t want to get burnt out!
Online tools and resources that I use to help (most are free!):
- Google Analytics
- Semrush
- I use the free version. There is a paid version, but the free version has mostly everything I need.
- Grammarly
- The free version is great, but the paid version is even better!
- This is a great tool to check over your writing before you publish it.
- My posts greatly improved once I started using Grammarly! This is definitely a necessity.
- Tailwind
- My Pinterest traffic increased significantly once I started using Tailwind.
- They have a free version. You can only schedule out so many posts on the free version. Once you use that up, you can manually pin.
- In my opinion, the paid version is definitely worth it!
- I love their communities and the ability to create pins from Tailwind to schedule.
- Canva
- You can get a long ways and create a lot with the free version. You do get better pictures and more options for pin templates with the paid version.
- Medium
- This is a blogging platform.
- In my opinion, you really need the paid version to get anywhere with this platform. It’s only $5 a month and you can earn money from this platform.
- I started using Medium just a couple months ago after I read a post a fellow blogger wrote about Medium.
- I think it is great for several reasons:
- The community and the connection with other bloggers.
- I can write different content on Medium than I do on my blog. In my experience, shorter posts (2-3 minute long posts) do better on Medium, but I have more success with longer posts on my blog. It’s fun to switch up the content. You certainly can still post the same type of content (or put one of your blog posts on Medium). Many people do that successfully as well.
- On Medium, you can earn money when people read your posts. So it is another income stream. I’ve only been a paid member of Medium for 2 months now and I have only made a couple dollars.
- I use Medium to promote my blog and help drive traffic to my blog. That was my main reason for starting, but I have quickly discovered many other benefits to using this platform.
- Check out this link to become a Medium member.
- Mailerlite
- I use this for my email list.
- I started with Mail Chimp, but I quickly became frustrated with Mail Chimp. Mailerlite is much easier to use.
- I have been reading a lot about Convertkit and I’ve been considering switching, but for now, I’m sticking with Mailerlite.
- Social media
- You need to promote your blog A LOT… especially in the beginning.
- I use Pinterest, Facebook, Quora, and Reddit to promote my blog.
- On Quora and Reddit, I try to find questions I can answer. If I have a blog post related to the answer, I will leave that at the end of my comment. If i don’t, I still try to help as many people as I can. I have a link to my blog in my bio. So, if anyone checks that out, they can easily find my blog.
- Elna Cain’s course: Ready Set Blog For Traffic.
- Seriously this course is great! I can’t even begin to tell you how much it helped me.
- It’s a paid course, but it’s VERY affordable and you will get your moneys worth out of the course.
- Yoast SEO
- I use this as a plug in to help improve my blog posts and it is very helpful.
If you are just starting out on your blogging journey, congrats! You’ve got this! I hope this advice for new bloggers has given you a few tips and tricks to help you along the way.
If you are a fellow blogger, I would love to connect!
What other advice do you have for new bloggers? Do you have other great tools that you use?
