So if you’re reading this you might be thinking about starting a blog? Great news! I collected some of the tips & tricks I wish someone would have told me about before I started. You will learn many things through your blogging journey, but here are some things you should now before you dive in:

BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

Decide!
Come up with the main topic and focus on the things that are most important for you. It’s alright to have more than one main topic but don’t forget to keep to your style in the future. If you start with a bunch of fitness posts, people might be expecting healthy lifestyle tips from you, so don’t suddenly quit and get into junk food promos!

Choose a blogging platform.
There are many different platforms out there for creating your internet identity, but mostly bloggers tend to focus on either Blogger or WordPress.

It’s worth mentioning that Self-hosted WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two completely different platforms. WordPress.com is a free blog hosting service, it doesn’t allow custom designer theme uploads and has limited editing options. With Worpdress.org, you have complete control of your blog and its content. You will have to get a hosting plan as well as a custom domain name in order to use it, but it’s absolutely worth it. I personally really recommend Bluehost for getting your blog self-hosted, they have amazing customer service and some really affordable plans!

Blogger/Blogspot is great if you’re a beginner. I personally started my blog on Blogspot too and hadn’t moved to WordPress.org after a year or so of active blogging. It’s super easy to register and start via Blogspot as you don’t need to have any coding/etc knowledge and you’ll be able to start posting straight away!

It’s really up to you to decide which platform is the best tho! So do your research, but don’t worry about it too much as you can always move it back and forth in the future :)

WHAT’S NEXT?

Register your blog.
Begin by registering your blog on the platform of your choice. Follow these simple tutorials & you will be good to go in a few minutes:

• Create Your WordPress Blog
• Create Your Blogger Blog

Pick a name.
This may be one of the hardest things as most see their blog as a brand, so the name is very important. It should be something personal and what you really stand strong by! I actually started with my blog being called ‘A Girl With A Movie Camera’. I was studying a lot of documentary films at the time and it kind of felt right. It didn’t last long tho. I then decided to just keep my pseudonym as my blog’s and business’s names, that’s how this blog and Kotryna Bass Design were born.

LET’S START:

Get a blog design.
If you’re really taking this thing seriously, random templates downloaded from the internet just won’t do it. You should consider getting a professional designer theme and avoid all that coding drama. Feel free to check out my website for some Premade Blogger Templates or Responsive WordPress Themes & let me know if you have any questions at all! I can also help you install the theme free of charge, so you can just relax and focus on those future posts!

Get on Social Media.
Every little helps when you’re a blogger, so even if you get that one more reader for reposting your posts on Tumblr- why wouldn’t you be there? Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter are all amazing for featuring your posts & getting involved in a blogging community. Don’t forget to be friendly, and you might even make a friend or two!

Start posting!
This is the exciting part, you have an empty book in front of you and it’s up to you to make this story happen. There are really no rules for it, so just jump in and enjoy! Make sure to use high-quality pictures tho as they are as important as your text.

Stay consistent.
Remember it takes time & you won’t get readers overnight. You will have to stay positive and just keep going, put some work into your blog and you will be rewarded soon enough! Read: How To Maintain Your Blogging Biz When You Have No Free Time

I hope this was helpful, folks!

I’m always here to answer all of your questions!