How I Started My Blog (+ 10 Steps on How to Start Your Own Blog)

I recently did a poll on my Instagram story to see if there was interest in reading a blog post about how I started my blog and how I write my posts. The response was positive so I decided to share my insights and story with you! I’m a big fan of lists so I created 10 easy to follow steps on how you can get started at the end of the post. Everything in this post is based on my experience and the research I did prior to starting my blog.

How I started my blog

Ever since I started studying in engineering, I wanted to do something to help interest girls into STEM fields. Since I had more time on my hands due to the current pandemic, my boyfriend suggested I start a blog to demonstrate you can be yourself in the field. I thought of mixing two different niches, lifestyle and tech, that are not usually mixed together in order to help convey my message.

I decided to choose the platform Hugo to create my blog. I chose to go with my own website instead of writing articles on a website such as Medium or LinkedIn since I wanted my blog to be a reflection of who I am. I wanted to customize my blog the way I wanted to. Hugo is a great platform since I was able to choose a starting theme and tweak it as it pleased me. Blog posts are easy to add as I just need to add a new Markdown file with my text in it. After I chose this platform, I researched other blogs to see how I wanted my blog to look like. When that was done, I chose a theme I liked and tweaked it to look the way I wanted it to. Once that was done, I bought my domain and wrote my first article!

Before I launched my blog, I spent some time brainstorming blog posts ideas. I made sure I had enough things to say to get my blog started at least for a few weeks!

Since I chose to host my blog on my own website, I knew I needed to promote it somewhere in order to bring traffic to it. I wanted to direct my blog mostly towards teenagers and young adults, so after doing some research, Instagram seemed like the best way to reach my them. From there, I created my Instagram page and started promoting my blog on it.

How I write my blog posts

As I mentioned before, I have a list of topics I want to write posts about on my phone. I usually plan my content 1+ month ahead using this list by assigning topics to upcoming release dates. This helps me save time every week since I don’t have to brainstorming ideas each week, I can just check what topic is assigned to the current week and start writing from there.

When I write personal experiences posts like the one I’m currently writing, I usually don’t have to do much research. However, when I write more informative posts, I usually need to spend 1 to 2 hours making sure my facts are accurate and finding interesting information to add onto my post. I usually write a first draft of a blog post in one sitting, spitting out all my ideas in a text. Later in the week, I re-read and usually change a lot of things in what I initially wrote in the post. Lastly, on Sunday night or Monday morning, I take a last look at the post and do a last spell check. Then, I publish and promote my new blog post!

10 Steps to take to start your own blog

1. Find what you want to write about
   Be creative! I decided to mix 2 unusual niches and make it my own.

2. Research your audience and how to reach them
   This is important to make your blog as valuable as possible and bring in traffic. When you start writing your posts, ensure your articles are tailored to your target audience.

3. Find inspiration from other blogs
   Take a look at what’s already out there! But make sure to make your blog your own and not to copy someone else’s, as your uniqueness is what will differentiate you from the others.

4. Find a platform you want to host your blog on
   This is an important decision, but you can always change it later if you’re not happy with your initial decision. You can choose to host your blog on your own website, which requires more work but allows total creative freedom, or to host it on an already existing blogging platform such as LinkedIn or Medium, which helps getting people to discover your posts.

5. Figure out how you’re going to promote your blog
   Make sure you choose the appropriate mean of promotion for your blog by taking into consideration your audience. Create informative and aesthetically pleasing promotional content to catch your audience’s eye!

6. Create your blog website
   That is, if you decide to host your blog on a website. This is a great way to practice and utilize your programming skills!

7. Buy your domain
   Choose a name for your blog and buy that domain name on Google Domain, GoDaddy or any other domain seller. Usually, the platform you choose to host your website on will have detailed instructions on how to connect your new custom domain to your website.

8. Write your first post
   Don’t worry if it’s not perfect, you’ll get better as you go.

9. Decide how frequently you want to publish content
   Consistency is key to make your blog successful. Find a frequency at which you want to release content: it could be once per day, per week, per month, etc. Make sure to be realistic: you’re much better starting at a low frequency and increase it as you go.

10. Publish your blog
    Good luck! Don’t be discouraged if your blog doesn’t do as well as you want it too in the beginning, it takes a while to grow an audience. Be consistent, have fun and enjoy the ride!

I hope this blog post helped motivated and/or helped you start a blog! Feel free to message me on Instagram to let me know what you thought of this post and if it helped you