Beginner’s Guide to Blogging

By Rikki Yanez
Assistant Blog Content Contributor

Have you ever thought to yourself “this would make a great blog” or “someone could write about this?” If you have had the urge to start a blog, but don’t know where to start don’t worry. Every writer has had their fair share of disheveled and unorganized thoughts. Here are a few tips that can help clarify and guide you in the process of creating your very own blog.

Blogging can be a fun hobby and potentially a career once you reach a wide audience. However, before you start a blog you want to ask yourself if this is something you really want to dedicate time. If the answer is yes, then your next decision is to figure out what you would like to write about. The fun thing about blogging is that there are so many topics out there that you have a variety to choose from. Perhaps, you can start a blog about mishaps that happen in your life and how you deal with it. Or, maybe you’re a sports fanatic and want to write about your take on all aspects of it. You can also start a blog doing movies or music reviews. In addition, if photography is a hobby of yours you can post pictures of places and things you find interesting. Like I said before, there’s a wide range of topics to write about. So, once you figure out what type of blog you would like to create, then it’s time to start thinking about what website would you like to create your blog on.

For starters, there are a variety of websites that let you create a blog for free. However, two websites that are great to start off with are Wix and WordPress. The great thing about WordPress is that it allows you to view your blogs analytics, as well as add images, hyperlinks, and tags that can help your blog posts reach a greater audience. Wix is more of a simple and easy to use website that still lets you design your blog the way you would like. After you decide what website you want to use you should getting familiar with how it works. While you become familiar with the site, your next step could be designing your blog. WordPress and Wix allows you to choose many templates that you feel is best for your blog. Although, when creating your blog be aware of copyrighted laws when you are using images or copying information from other sites. This is a major key for beginners! Always cite your sources!

Once you have figured out what topic you would like to write and the design, now it’s time to write! Writing can be hard at first, especially if you haven’t written in awhile or if it’s not your strongest skill. However, overtime it can be fun. When you first start writing, I find that it’s helpful to plan out what you are going to write about. If you choose to blog each week a good tip to not having writer’s block is to pick a different sub-topic that falls into the category of your blog. For example, if you have a music blog the first week can just be a general overview of what your blog will consist of. For the second week you can write about pop music and how it’s changed over the years. The following week you can write about a different genre too. Let your creative side run when deciding on what to write each week.

Blogging every week will soon better your writing and editing skills. As blogging has become a trend over the years, there is always someone on the other side of the screen anxious for new content that you can put out there. You may think that just starting out you won’t have an immediate large audience, but with the help of sharing your post on social media that can change. While blogging can be intimidating with large successes such as the Huffington Post, Pitchfork, TechCrunch, and even Buzzfeed they all had to start somewhere. This can only be the beginning for you.

Featured image by Rikki Yanez.