What to expect when starting a blog & tips

When I started this blog it was pretty much on a whim, I was almost 9 months pregnant and was home all the time and I needed to keep myself occupied. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do or how to start a blog. I googled blog hosts sites and decided on WordPress. I didn’t realize how much work and effort goes into starting a blog, it’s a lot from figuring out how to change widgets to plug ins and add ons. I figured out how to do all those things without googling it. When starting a blog know that you won’t get much traffic at first and it’ll take time to put your blog out there. If you start to just make money you won’t become a successful blogger because you’re solely basing it to be monetized. You can do that but you want to post frequently and build your blog up before wanting to make money. Once you have your site set up you need to decide on the content, what you want to write about. With me, writing about natural hair, book reviews, product reviews, parenting and what goes on in my life was what i knew I could get started with. You’ll want your blog to look aesthetically appealing, meaning adding photos to your posts and a good theme. You also want it to look well put together and professional.Here are some tips and more what to expect for blogging:

• Reach out to companies and brands that reflect what your blog is about, it’ll show them that you’re interested in working with them. There’ll be times where some won’t get back to you , it’s happened to me where I’d email 10 brands/companies and I’d get back 5 or 6 replies over a few days. 
• Broadcast your new posts after you publish them. Put a picture of your post on Facebook, Instagram , Snapchat etc that way more people will see it and be likely to keep up with any future posts .
• Make a Facebook page for your blog. On there you can post short exerpts from your blog and anything related to it. Invite your family and friends to like the page so you know you’ll always have a small group of loyal readers. 
• Contact different influencer talent agencies. Although most want you to have a certain number of followers and monthly views, there’s some that will help you with social media content and sponsered posts . 
• Collaborate and reach out to bloggers of the same niche as you. You can bounce ideas off each other for posts and even tips that will help you maintain your blog as well. It’ll help get you more viewers and traffic too. 
• It could take a couple of months before the blog gets noticed by big brands, companies or agencies . The more you work on your blog, upping the content and keeping it active it’ll get noticed. 

If you’re thinking about starting a blog go for it ! I hope these tips have helped answer any questions any of you have about it. Remember everything takes times, including getting your blog out there for the world to see. Writing is a great outlet for expressing yourself and just writing about whatever you love . I’ve come to really like writing and any topic I wrote about it flows so well. You’ll never know how you’ll do if you don’t try , if you’re scared or don’t know where to start go with what comes to you off the bat and go from there. You’ll find your rhythm and will have a successful blog.