Starting your blogging journey can feel overwhelming. Between the overflow of advice being bandied about and the pressure you put on yourself to make your blog “perfect” you may be paralyzed by fear.
Take one deep breath.
Relax.
Start your blogging journey off on the right foot. Follow your fun to begin blogging from the proper space.
1: Follow Your Fun
Blog your fun. Follow your fun.
All the practical tips below aren’t worth a hill of beans if you don’t blog your fun.
Pick a niche you feel passionate about. Passion fuels your blogging journey through ups and downs. Being passionate makes the work/play the reward. This detaches you a bit from outcomes which inspires you to create, connect, to serve others, to have fun and to do all the things you need to do to succeed with your blog.
2: Buy Your Domain and Hosting
Buy your domain and hosting. Earn the trust of your audience. Boost your credibility.
Don’t make the common mistake of using a free blogging platform. Do you really think folks will follow you with your jacked-up looking domain name?
Plunk down money. Buy your domain. Buy hosting. Build a professional brand. From day one.
3: Follow 1-3 Blogging Mentors
Follow one to three blogging mentors. Learn from successful bloggers. Do as they do.
If you’re new to blogging you may feel lost or outright overwhelmed, like an ant trying to fight off the stream from a firehose. Successful pro bloggers from your niche teach you how to be and what to do to succeed.
Losing your way as a newbie is part and parcel with your online tuition. Pros nudge you back on track.
Read pro blogs. Buy their courses. Hire them. Let them lead you to success.
Smart bloggers follow the advice of professional, established bloggers from day one of their blogging careers.
4: Write 500 Words Daily for Practice
Write 500 words daily in a Word document. Trash the doc. This is just writing practice.
Following this practice gives you confidence and clarity in your writing. Doing so helps you find your writing voice.
This is the #1 practical tip to follow for any new blogger. Once you can write, everything else begins to fall into place nicely.
5: Promote Other Bloggers
This seems zany to new bloggers who are caught up on themselves.
This seems like common knowledge to successful bloggers.
Your blogging journey gets easier if you bring 10, 100 or 1000 people on board. Imagine 100 folks promoting you to their networks? Imagine how you’d inspired 100 folks to promote you? By promoting them. By befriending them.
Make friends with bloggers from your niche. Comment on their blogs. Help them. Assist them. Tweet their posts.
Some bloggers will promote you in return. Friendships form. You just cut your learning curve by years.
Hands down, most bloggers struggle like an earthworm on a piping hot sidewalk because they go Lone Wolf. Join the pack. Make friends. The whole “strength in numbers” deal.
6: Double Down on Personal Development
A jambalaya of limiting beliefs *will* pop up on your blogging journey.
Double down on meditating, exercising and clearing your inner world to face, embrace and release limiting beliefs.
I meditate for 30 minutes daily. I also exercise for 60 minutes every day.
Doing the inner work and raising your vibe helps you navigate the inevitable obstacles that will pop up along the way, smoothing out a sometimes bumpy new blogger path.
7: Dive into Blog Commenting
Blog commenting is the easiest, simplest way for new bloggers to gain traction.
This networking method involves few barriers to entry. Outside of having your comment sit in a spam folder for a few hours your creation goes live quickly.
Write in-depth comments. 3 to 5 paragraphs. Or longer. Address bloggers by name. Share your thoughts freely. Add value.
Blog commenting drives traffic to your blog and expands your friend network. Darn good deal for new bloggers.
Your Turn
What tips can you add to this list?
Ryan Biddulph is a blogger, author and world traveler who’s been featured on Richard Branson’s Virgin Blog, Forbes, Fox News, Entrepreneur, John Chow Dot Com and Neil Patel Dot Com. You can learn how Ryan Biddulph is blogging from paradise here.
