BLOGGING TIPS from a Full Time Blogger | What you need to know before YOU START A BLOG

 hey guys welcome back 

   

 I'm sharing all my top

tips for starting a blog so if you're

new to my youtube channel you might not

know that I'm actually a full-time

blogger I just didn't YouTube for fun on

the side but because I've been blogging

for so long coming up nine and a half

years of blogging I get so many

questions about how to start a blog and

I try to remind people that I started my

blog in 2008 and things were a little

bit different back then but there's

still some stuff that I have learned

over the years that would be helpful for

starting a blog right now okay so my

first tip it's gonna sound so dumb when

I say it but I hope you guys just hear

me out on this and that is to just start

if you want to get a blog off the ground

the best thing and the only thing that

you can really do is to just get going I

know a lot of people like want things to

be just right and just perfect but the

reality is that you need to get going to

get going and you're gonna learn things

along the way and the only way to get

started is to actually sit down and just

go for it don't worry about things being

perfect

frankly there's going to be no one

reading your blog at the beginning which

is amazing because that means you have a

lot of time to just sort through and

work out the details and really just get

in the habit of writing it I think I see

a lot of people starting blogs and the

biggest thing that I see happening over

and over again is that they get super

excited the first two weeks and then

they lose steam and they can't keep it

up and by not putting a lot of pressure

on yourself at the beginning for things

to be perfect that's gonna help you just

sit down and just get in that habit of

writing your blog maybe once a week

twice a week three times a week whatever

you decide is the right amount for you

people always ask me okay well I want to

start a blog what should I do and I

really do just respond you just have to

start you know figure out what platform

you want to be on it doesn't mean you

have to stick with that forever you can

always transfer a move down the road I

started my blog

bloggers which is a free platform

through Google and I was on there from a

seven and a half years and then I

ultimately switched to WordPress but

WordPress isn't free so that might not

be the best option for you but look into

Wix Squarespace tumblr blogger WordPress

anyway pick a platform and just sit down

and start pouring your heart out okay so

the second tip that I have is that

everyone should go into blogging with

the right intention you know I think

when you start anything in life you

should try to sit down and figure out

like why you're doing this and what you

want your end goals to be I think a lot

of people look at bloggers or

instagramers of youtubers or whomever

and say oh that's what I want to do they

get to travel they get to work from home

they get all this free stuff they get to

work with all these amazing companies

and yes it's incredible and that's such

a blessing and I'm so fortunate and

grateful that I get to do that but the

number of bloggers who actually hit that

level it's so small and a lot of the

people that you're seeing who are

experiencing that level have been doing

this for so many years and that means

that for years and years beforehand none

of that was actually coming their way

so if you're starting with that is your

intention you're probably going to get

frustrated and feel down on yourself for

not hitting those goals when in reality

it's just like a long-term game I think

when you set your intention to say I

want to start a blog because I want to

have a creative outlet that's why I

started my blog in the first place or

you want to start an online portfolio of

all your photographs or you want to

place with all your writing samples so

that you can share that with other

people or maybe it's just for your own

self and no one's gonna see it so just

start with an intention that will lead

you to success

what I recommend saying is that this is

just something that you want to enjoy it

and explore and no matter what happens

and what opportunities come down the

line as long as you're always enjoying

the writing process or photographing or

anything to do with blogging as long as

you're enjoying it you're actually

successful and you won't feel frustrated

if you don't become a full-time blogger

in a month or six months or a year

I didn't start full-time blogging until

I had done it for I think five years

five or six years

and I never intended on becoming a

full-time blogger so that's just kind of

like a cherry on the cake I've just

always enjoyed the process of blogging

regardless of whether I'm getting paid

for it or sponsored or free stuff or

traveling I've just always loved

blogging even without all those things

and I've always felt successful because

of that once you start blogging one of

the things that I struggle with and that

I hear a lot of other people struggling

with is that you might have a hard time

coming up with things to write about I

always say you know come up with what

your niche is gonna be and what you're

going to be blogging about try to keep

it narrow so that you have a specific

take on something and that people know

when they come to your blog that that's

what you're going to be talking about

but also broad enough so that you still

have things to talk about over time you

don't want to keep things super specific

where after blogging for six weeks

you've just completely exhausted the

list of things to blog about but you

also don't want to be so broad that you

could blog about absolutely anything and

your readers are gonna be so confused

when they come to your blog because they

don't really get what you're about so I

always recommend that when you're

getting your blog off the ground to sit

down and try to come up with 50 blog

posts ideas if you're starting a

successful blog you're going to have

more than 50 blog posts over time but I

feel like that 50 number is such a sweet

spot of knowing that you have tons of

stuff to write about and if you can get

to 50 you can get to 100 you can get to

500 and you can get to a thousand but if

you're writing that list of things and

this by the way is just a list of topics

it's not that you're actually going to

sit down and write those 50 posts all at

once you're just coming up with ideas if

you get to number 25 and you realize

that you really have exhausted that list

maybe your blog is a little too narrow

and you need to broaden the horizon just

a little bit so you can get to that 50

mark people always ask me like how do I

keep coming up with ideas guys I've been

doing this everyday a blog post every

single day for years and there are times

when I start to think to myself okay

that's it I've got to quit my blog I

don't have any more ideas and then all

of a sudden an idea will come out of

nowhere so keep that running list of

things and when you hit 50 you know

you're in the sweet spot of having a

niche topic without being too broad and

also without

being too narrow so one way that I try

to come up with ideas is just to look

around me and try to get inspired by

everything what am i doing what if I'd

done the past week what's something

that's worrying me what are my

girlfriends and I talking about

where am i shopping did I read something

new in the news that I thought was

interesting I try to keep my blog like a

conversation with my reader like a

conversation with the friends because I

think of my reader as a friend so

looking at what my friends and I are

doing and talking about and interested

in actually helps me come up with tons

and almost nearly I guess I would say

endless ideas okay so this next tip is

something that I wouldn't recommend 9

years ago when I was starting my blog

because the blogging world it was so

different but it's something that I

think you really have to focus on now in

2018 and that is quality you need to

make sure that even if you're just

starting out and you're still figuring

things out that you're putting out the

best content that you can put out it

means the best writing the best

photography no obviously you're going to

get better over time and you will

continue to perfect things and figure

out what works for you but don't just

try to like whip something up and think

that it's okay because it's the bare

minimum you know really put in the

effort to make your content great that's

what's gonna really help you stand out

among other people who have been doing

it for nine years or eight years I see

people starting blogs they're taking

photographs like at night and it's dark

and it's grainy and you can't really get

a good clear idea of what they are what

their personality is and there's a

striking difference between that which

just looks kind of like lackluster

versus someone who has been doing it for

a long time it has a much more polished

look so go through some of the accounts

that you are really inspired by or that

you think are really amazing even if

it's not the same niche as you and then

try to figure out how to get your

content to be that great

here are some pro tips you don't need a

fancy camera you can take incredible

photos and videos with your iPhone and

the key is that you just need to focus

on lighting try to get as much natural

light as possible if natural light is

impossible try to you know find a light

source in the room that's going to help

brighten things up and play around with

it this is supposed to be fun and it

should be an experiment and I get

- you're gonna learn as you go and

that's part of the fun of it but make

sure you are trying to get the best

content that you can when you're

starting because you're just gonna get

ahead of the game that way okay so yes

my last tip was about quality of content

but then my next and final tip is going

to be about the quantity and I know

people often say that its quality over

quantity but it's quality in a

consistent quantities so figure out

what's gonna work for you now don't try

to go overboard if you can't commit to

putting up a blog post every single day

don't put up a blog post every single

day sit down and say I know that I can

guarantee blog posts twice a week and

that's gonna be on Sundays and

Wednesdays and stick to that so that's

gonna be your quantity it's just being

consistent with how often you're posting

you don't want to go you know 60 miles

an hour right at the start and then all

of a sudden after two weeks of doing

that you completely burnt yourself out

and you have to take two weeks off

that's not gonna make someone that feel

enthusiastic or excited to follow you if

they feel like they're not gonna get a

specific amount of content you know let

people know what to expect from you and

as long as you're meeting those

expectations that's gonna be enough and

then going off of that you know

obviously blogging is on a platform

where you're gonna be able to write and

share a lot of things like that but

there's also that social media component

and try to be on as many platforms as

you can without losing the quality of

your content so that might mean saying I

want a blog and a YouTube channel but I

don't have time for Instagram and

Twitter or that saying I definitely

don't have time for YouTube so I'm just

gonna focus on my blog and Instagram and

try to keep one tweet a day so figure

out like what's gonna work for you where

you're not losing the quality of your

content but that your readers know

exactly what to expect from you and that

you are you know keeping that hamster

real moving and you're not burning

yourself out but you're also not just

disappearing and only coming in

sporadically like commit to a schedule

and figure out what works for you even

if that's just once a week that's

totally fine and your readers might be

like so excited that you're going to

post I

Monday morning and that's how they're

gonna start your week you don't have to

be blogging every day so don't think

that you know quantity just completely

overrides everything else it's a balance

and it's more of an art than a science

and figuring out what works for you so

your readers are happy at the end of the

day so if you liked these tips I'm going

to leave two blog posts that I've

recently written on my blog with tons of

tips so these were kind of top level

tips and then in the blog post I go into

more detail if you have more questions

or you maybe you started a blog recently

but you just want to dive a little

deeper

those two blog posts are going to help

you a lot I spent a lot of time putting

them together and everything is free I'm

not trying to sell you anything you know

I don't think you should buy blogging

tips from anyone the content is out

there in the world so I just put my two

cents and I tried to answer as many

frequently asked questions as they get

and those so start there if you are more

interested in starting a blog and if you

like this video give it a thumbs