I think when people see blogs that have a lovely design, great photographs and a large following, they think "I could never have a blog like that." Even now when I see those blogs, I think that to myself however you have to remember that every successful blogger started with nothing, everyone has had 0 followers at some point and a blank website staring back at them. It's going to take work, you don't get 10,000 followers overnight or PR emails flooding in as soon as you start. Don't expect to be handed products to review as soon as you start, just because you're a blogger doesn't mean you are entitled to anything.
I frequently receive emails from people asking "how do I start a blog?" I thought it would be easier to write a post all about it so all my advice is in one place (still feel free to email me if you do have questions though.) I have written advice posts before but I thought that today, I would start from the basics. Obviously this is my advice, you could think I'm talking absolute rubbish but this is what I've learnt over the two and a half years of running a blog.
Platform
Firstly you have to choose where you want your blog to be hosted, the two choices people generally go for are Blogger and Wordpress. I personally use Blogger as this is the one most people generally start on, I know a lot of people start on Blogger and move over to Wordpress. I haven't looked into doing this as I'm pretty happy with Blogger and Wordpress confused me. I know that Wordpress is better if you want to add more things and change your design and layout around a bit whereas Blogger has more of a layout that you stick to. I have no problem using Blogger and am very happy with it so I think it just depends on which you get on better with.
Layout
When starting a blog you obviously need some sort of layout. Although many people won't admit it, you instantly get am impression of a blog when you go on it and see the layout. I didn't find it too difficult to get to grips with, google really is your friend when it comes to working out how to make blog headers and add things but if you really struggle you can pay someone to do it all for you. I recommend
Abby and
Pigdig. In terms of your layout, don't make it look cluttered, make it look clean and make sure your don't have your text in a colour that is difficult to read. I personally think simple is better, it is very distracting to try and read a post when there's fifty different pictures and fonts.
Photography
Photography is also incredible important when starting a blog, you don't need a fancy expensive camera, just understand the basics and you'll be fine. I did write a Blog Photography post so you can read that
here. In summary, lighting is very important, take your photos using natural light, (so in the middle of the day) make sure you take your photos away from the light rather than into the light. Edit your photos, I use Picmonkey and occasionally Photoshop but Picmonkey is free so I would recommend that! When it comes to taking product photos, don't over edit, make sure you can see the true colour of the product. If you're reviewing an eyeshadow palette or a lipstick, show a swatch as otherwise how are people meant to see the true colour of the product? I think photography is something that you will naturally improve on as time goes on, when I first started, my photography was terrible. To be honest I'm still not 100% happy with my photography at the moment so it's something I'm working on; you can't expect everything to be perfect.
Content
Obviously content is key because that's the main gist of your blog, my advice is to write content that you would want to read. I think posting about what you love and enjoy is important otherwise you probably won't want to blog anymore. Recently I decided to include more lifestyle posts and baking because I had been feeling slightly de-motivated to blog and wasn't enjoying it as much. So remember that yes, other people are reading your blog but you need to enjoy it too. I think the quality of your writing is important too, your readers need to understand what you're trying to get across to them. Read through your posts at least three times to double check that it all makes sense, there's nothing worse than not understanding a post and trying to piece together what the blogger was trying to say.
Social Media
Another important factor, if you don't have twitter, you're missing out. This is a great way to promote your blog and new posts, also it's great to chat to other bloggers and interact with PR's, you can also get involved with all the different chats that go on which allows you to talk to bloggers and share your blogs with each other. Instagram is another way to promote your blog and update people when you have published a new post, I have also found SO many new blogs to read just from Instagram so it really is a helpful tool.
Don't take it too seriously
Don't stress yourself out about little things, sometimes you get caught up in "ohh, only one person commented on that post." Instead of reflecting on the bad, remember that one person took their time to write you a nice comment. To me, blogging is my hobby so I try to make it as fun as I possibly can, if I take it seriously and stress out about it, it probably won't be fun anymore.
