By Pamela Bartholomew
First month of blogging has surprised me with some MUST KNOW tips.
Wow, what a month! The amount of blogging tips and tricks, guides, and lists that I have absorbed within this past month has been astronomical to say the least. I thought I knew facts about blogging before fully dedicating myself – but LITTLE did I know truly.
I’ve had so much fun within this short amount of time than I ever had within ten years of my day job.
There are many FUNDAMENTAL steps when it comes to blogging that I now know are NEEDED to be able to move forward in this journey. The farther I get in this adventure, the more I realize important steps along the way that need finishing. I thought It’d be smart so share with you just a few that I have found are the MOST important steps that you need to take in blogging in order to progress.
This article may contain affiliate links which means I may obtain commission at NO extra cost to you – If you purchase through a link. Please see my disclosure if you’d like more information. Enjoy!
Self Host
Top of the priority list should 100% be getting your website self hosted. Self hosting is being able to own 100% of your own website. To be able to customize it freely. Most importantly it means being able to monetize yourself. When faced with the option of either being hosted by a site or self hosting – please, please choose self hosting.
Join A Community
Friends! I cannot stress this enough. Reaching out and connecting to others in your community is the BEST thing you can do.
Whether this be through, instagram, twitter, youtube, WHATEVER platform you decide – find your niche and connect with the people inside of it.
I found my people on twitter not too long ago and I’ve been addicted to them ever since. (Follow me and join in on all the fun! Click here)
Not only are you connecting to others that are going through exactly what you are going through, but you are getting to learn and ask questions and REALLY gain knowledge from people who are doing it too.
These people are YOUR people. These people have your mindset, have your way of thinking, and want to encourage and see YOU grow. It’s incredible really.
Get out there, join communities, talk, interact and really dive in. Create a family. You will gain SO much.
Pinterest Is Your New Best friend
If you are anything like me, Pinterest is probably just another fun app that you use from time to time to pin your favourite outfits, quotes, or your favourite room inspirations.
Well, guess what!? Pinterest can also be your BIGGEST way to grow traffic to your blog! Crazy right? Think about it. All the other pins that you see on there are all CONNECTED to a blog. It’s genius!
As a result, I’ve learned so much about pinterest from these past few weeks and I still have much more to learn. I am so lucky that Ell Duclos ( a huge pinterest and blog guru) made a course called Pinterest With Ell that BREAKS pinterest down.
How did it help?
Step by step, she allowed me to really pick Pinterest apart and work at each section as she explains how Pinterest works and how to maximize it to get the MOST traffic to your blog. Not only that but she’s such a sweet lady who is open to chat on facebook whenever you’d like to learn more.
*Check out my Pinterest page! Follow me and we can be friends! Click here!*
Legal Pages
I would be lying if I said monetization isn’t high on the priority list. We all want to get to a point where we can make money off our blog site. But what is money when I could be faced with a lawsuit down the road? Every night, screaming questions in my head whenever I posted a new blog.
What about cookies? What about disclaimers? What about privacy policy?
There was always that gut-wrenching feeling like I was missing something important. That’s because I was. Legal pages is so important and to not have it on your blog, you are opening yourself to potential problems down the road. Whether you make money on your blog or not, you need legal pages to notify readers that their information is safe. That’s when I knew I had to pull the plug.
When It came to legal pages, I knew I had little to no knowledge. But I also knew I wanted to keep it professional and really get it done right. After a lot of research and price comparisons, I finally decided on a legal bundle on Blogging for New Bloggers. It was an easy way for me to download, plug in my information, and have my pages up and ready. It took maybe 30 minutes and I was done. Never needed to think about it again. Woo!
Treat It Like A Business
Something I had to wrap my mind around pretty quickly was that – If you want it to be a business, you need to treat it like one.
I had to quickly take the plunge in really dedicating time towards gaining more.
When It came to my website, I had to realize that running my blog was going to take lots of time, money, and dedication – because that’s what running a business takes. I want to make this my career one day and to do that I need to really dedicate myself towards it.
That means learning as much as I can, making a routine and committing to it, and putting in money that will push me forward to be able to succeed more in the long run.
I knew I wanted this, it just depends how badly I want this and what I’m willing to do to get it.
