Hi hi, potential blogger!
Welcome to what might be the best addition to your professional or personal life! But before I give you any tips or insights, I want to tell you that you’re in the right place. Not only do I believe that in blogging from a professional standpoint as a possible live resume and career builder, I believe that it can be one of the most healing aspects of your life if you choose to operate it as a means to connect with others.
Professionally, you can write a blog about your career and what your experiences are with it. The golden rules of life will apply in the conversation calendar you’ll build upon; i.e. blogging about the positives and negatives are okay but don’t trash any employer online because future employers could see it as a risk to hire you. Write about all of it but do it with class and with long-term impact on your mind. If you have a blog about your profession, I vote that you write about your knowledge and tips for others who work with you, for you, or look to you for insight.
Personal blogging can be a bit of a slippery slope. I’ve personally blogged about the most difficult moments of my life; which I believe keeps me honest and vulnerable. I show what’s going on in my life to keep me authentic and real. I don’t want others to think I live a Pinterest perfect life because I don’t and I hope my transparency connects with others to know that we’re not alone in this chaotic super speed train we call “our journey”. It’s a slippery slope because some people will praise you for it and others that don’t know you nor your intentions may condemn you for it. If you know that walking into it then you’re best prepared for either way. Just remember this one quote: “What you seek is seeking you.” – Rumi | With that idea in mind know that your posts will connect with the right people and the wrong ones will drift away. Don’t be mad at them, just know that you’re not for them AND they’re not for you. No drama in letting it be.
Whichever way you choose to go with it, my advice is to keep it honest, insightful, and be sure to keep yourself focused on your goals for it long-term.
I’ve had a lot of people contact me about blogging. With the subjects ranging on how to start one, how to operate them, how to monetize them, et cetera. The truth is that there’s a million books and blogs about how to do any of the above and you should definitely connect with others in your area that inspire you. Nine times out of ten, they’ll be flattered to hear that they connect with you and they’ll be honored to guide you along the ropes as a mentor.
Beware that there is a small chance that they won’t want you to blog because they view you as competition in some capacity. If this is the case just brush it off and push forward looking for other mentors or just doing it on your own.
Never forget this one thing: Remember the people that believed in you to begin with and NEVER turn your back on them. Burning the foundation that boosted you up is a recipe for losing support and a bad showing of gratitude.
To get this hopeful series of blogs about blogging, I bid you adieu into these insights:
– Platform
– Hosting
– Domain
– Design
Platform
Choosing where you want to build blog is the first thing you have to do. I use WordPress because it’s user friendly and I love the market information available to bloggers and businesses alike.
WordPress is by far one of the largest blogging platforms in the world with over 50,487 plugins and over 75 million websites as users. Click HERE for more stats.
WordPress is FREE to use with countless layouts and themes to select from. With the platform comes great support if you are comfortable using forums.
If you’re curious about my preference and use, I work with a designer for my blog. Her name is Melissa Bandera of Jelly Design Studio. Click HERE to visit her site. I chose to work with Melissa because design and website building isn’t a strength I possess and I’m okay with it. I’ve learned that knowing my strengths and weaknesses and how to manage them makes me a better operator in all of my work and life obligations.
Hosting
So this is a big decision that requires a long-term approach. It is about whether you’re going to pay for it or if you’ll create a free one. WordPress offers free blogs but it’s not aesthetically pleasing when looking at the domain address. Example: BellaOfLouisville.wordpress.com vs. BellaOfLouisville.com – I vote BellaOfLouisville.com all day, every day. It’s clean and legit.
When your work is on a FREE site, it becomes the host’s property and you your work deserves to be owned by you and only you, until you start doing sponsored posts then it becomes their property too but let’s save that for another blog.
Domain
I’m going to push ahead based on the hope you’ve selected WordPress.
If you’re still a little confused by what a self-hosted blog is allow me to explain. First, you’ll need to come up with a domain name you LOVE and also choose a hosting company that can host your blog.
Domain: The domain is basically the URL of your website. Examples: topptpizza.com (topptpizza.com is the domain), unbrildedeve.com (unbrildedeve.com is the domain).
Hosting: Hosting is basically the company that puts your website up on the Internet so everyone else can see it. Everything will be saved on there. Think of it as a computer hard-drive on the Internet where your blog will be saved.
Once WordPress is installed on your website, all you have to do to start blogging is go to your WP-Admin page usually www.yourblognamehere.com/wp-admin and start writing by adding a new post.
As you start, you may feel confused or overwhelmed by the process but once you get going it’s quite easy. Just keep going. It will become second nature before you know it.
Design
Your design is a reflection of you so choose wisely and give it the attention that it deserves. To choose a new theme, you can either head to Appearance > Themes and install a free WordPress theme or you can contact a designer or even my designer (see above) to get them to help you with the branding design you’re creating the second you tell the universe you have a blog.
Remember, your blog’s design should be an insta-reflection on your personality and what your blog is all about.
Another item you want to be sure to build your design around is the ease of it and how you can make it navigationally sound for your visitors with the hopes that they’ll love it and become a follower of your blog to be a part of their routine and / or follow you on your social accounts; i.e. Facebook fan page, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, et cetera.
More Info
If you have any questions, topics, or items you’d like to know about blogging, please send me a message via my Facebook blog page by clicking HERE.
Thanks for reading this post! Stay tuned for more!
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