Blogging Tips For Beginners

I've really enjoyed writing more blogging tips and advice posts over the last few months. From ways to increase your DA to simple ways to grow your blog, I've now decided to share a bit of advice for those new to blogging. As I always say in these sorts of posts I'm not some sort of expert in blogging and not a big blogger by any means but after doing this for almost 4 years now, I feel like I've learnt enough to be able to share. I know when I started out with blogging, posts like this would have been so helpful so hopefully if you're new to it or hoping to start a blog in the future, some of these tips will be useful!

Choose A Blog Name You'll Stick With

Picking a name for my blog was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do regarding blogging because I just had no idea where to start! After much deliberation, the name came to me when watching the film Love and Other Drugs. Well I say that, George and I were watching it and he said, what about Food and Other Loves? so really all credit goes to him for that. It just clicked and nothing else seemed right and I can't imagine it being called anything else now. That being said, there are many bloggers who I've seen really regret their choice and then have to try and change it so when starting your blog, really think about what you want it to be called, what you want it to be focused on and where you see your blog going in the long run. You can keep it simple with your name or try and incorporate other things into it. If you know your blog is going to be beauty based, try and add something relevant into it. The possibilities are endless but when you find the right one, you'll just know!

Write For Yourself

It's so important if you start a blog, that you're doing it for the right reasons. A lot of people now think they can start a blog and automatically earn money from it and get freebies but trust me, it isn't like that all! Blogging is hard work and building it up to the point where people want to work with you takes time. I started a blog because I was just bored and needed something to do, I had no idea how much I would love it and that I'd still be doing it now. For me blogging has never been about money or free products, I do it regardless of that and always have because I love it. Write for yourself because you have something to share, not for any other hidden agenda.

Find Your Niche

Write about things you want to read and find your niche. If you love all things makeup and know that's your passion then consider yourself a beauty blogger, don't feel you have to do what everyone else is, that's what makes you and your blog unique! Having a niche makes it clear for anyone who visits your blog what it's all about and your love for whatever topic you choose will shine through. If you're not 100% sure what route you want to go down and have a range of things you want to talk about then your niche might be lifestyle. As fellow blogger Abbey mentioned in a post recently, lifestyle blogging can mean a few different things. Some people consider it to mean luxury blogging but others see it as talking about the more casual day to day stuff. I'm definitely the latter as I talk about most things on my blog, from food to beauty to travel and lots more, the only way I can really define it is as 'lifestyle' but whatever you decide on, knowing your niche makes things easier for you and your readers.

Have A Schedule

Life happens sometimes and it's not always easy to stick to set days each week but when possible, it really does help. Whether you post once a week or five days a week, having some sort of schedule with it means your readers know when to expect a new post and it just makes life a little easier for you too! It means you can plan ahead for future posts and you can work it around things like jobs or uni. I wish I'd stuck to some sort of routine when I started, I used to go days without posting and then post twice in one day whereas now I'm quite strict on posting throughout the week and I've noticed a real difference in my views and engagement.

Promote Your Posts

This might seem like quite an obvious one but I actually didn't really use to promote my blog posts at all, and I've seen many other bloggers say the same thing. For some reason it's like I just expected people to find my blog every time there was a new post without me actually saying anything! If you want people to read and comment on your blog posts then you need to share them where you can. I now share every blog post on Twitter, Bloglovin, Pinterest, my blog Facebook page, Google+ and Instagram (usually insta stories).

Interact With Other Bloggers

The main way to grow your following and bring more people to your blog is interacting with other bloggers. There are so many bloggers out there now and you can find them on so many different social media platforms. Just adding relevant hashtags to your tweets like #lbloggers gets your posts out there and also helps you find other bloggers. Don't be afraid to reply to other peoples tweets, leave a comment on their post or on their instagram and try and strike up a friendship. Whilst it's important to interact with other bloggers, don't just leave spammy comments on their blog posts. If you want to comment, make sure it's genuine as people will just see through it otherwise. Have a genuine interest in others and get to know them.

Know Your Worth

Regardless of if you've been blogging for 5 years or 5 hours, it's important to know your worth and never undersell yourself. It's so exciting whenever an email lands from a brand saying they'd love to work with you, but a lot of the time no matter how good of a blogger you are or how long you've been doing it for, they'll still try and get to you to feature them for free. Obviously it's up to you but just because you're new to blogging, doesn't mean you should work for free or as a rough guide, I personally don't think you should work for less than £50. Much more work goes into a post than people realise and you deserve to be paid for it! Don't think just because you're new to blogging means you don't deserve to be paid for your time.

Have Fun

The most important bit of advice I can give regarding blogging is just have fun with it! Blog because you want too and blog about whatever you want. Having your own little place on the internet is amazing and it's so wonderful to have all of these blog posts to look back on one day. As difficult as it is sometimes try not to take it so seriously that it stops becoming fun and try not to compare yourself to others. Just do it because you enjoy it and everything else will eventually fall into place.

I hope if you've just started up a blog that this helps a little bit. I don't know much but these are all things I wish I'd know about before I started, as I really didn't have a clue!

Have you got any blogging tips for beginners? What is one thing you wish you'd have known?

Follow Me - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest & Bloglovin!