Some of you may know this by now, but I have been in the blogging game for a very long time. I think it must be creeping up to 15 years at this stage, which is almost more than half my life. When I first started out, never in a million years did I imagine that I would still be sat here at my laptop creating posts. However, I still love creating content and I have no intention on stopping any time soon.

With that said, blogging has changed enormously since that fateful day many years ago when I first sat down and began to create my first post. With that said, today I am going to be sharing with you some of my key pieces of advice for people who are wanting to begin blogging today.

 

 

Start for the right reasons.

These days, people grow up knowing that bloggers, YouTubers and influencers can earn millions. There are certainly some people out there that are massively rich and famous from their online pursuits, but they are the exception, not the rule.

If you create a site and begin to generate content with the intention of making money, you will struggle. Focus on something that is tangible like getting repeat readers to your site, sticking to a schedule and analysing what works well. From there, you can begin to think if it is something that you would be able to scale up and make it into a career.

 

Find your niche.

I am going to say this in the loosest of terms. I certainly don’t mean find one category of blogging and stick to it. It would be incredibly hypocritical of me to say that because I have never done that myself. However, I would say that my niche here on this site is writing about very serious and deep issues from a comedic perspective. God knows how many times I wrote about my own current mental health position in a mocking tone to try and bring light to the situation. Or even when I was going through my infertility battle, I would speak about it from a jokey tone. That is who I am away from my site, so it only suits that my writing follows the same kind of pattern.

That is my niche. All subjects will be spoken about. Nothing is off limits. But I will do it in a (hopefully) relatable and comedic tone.

 

Stick at it.

More than anything else, I have to seriously advocate for you guys to stick at it. Work hard and don’t quit. There were so many times over the years when I would be disheartened by the figures, or I would receive a snarky comment. I didn’t let anything stop me. I had a plan, and I stuck to it. With each post I uploaded, my skills were growing, and it felt right that I was still creating.

Don’t get me wrong, my site is called, ‘The Reluctant Blogger’, because many times I have seriously walked down the line of throwing in the towel and putting my entire writing venture behind me. But I never have. If you want it, stick at it.

 

Discover your writing tone.

Back when I first made a blog, I was just a kid. I had never written in much general capacity before and there was certainly a learning process. A couple of years into the journey, I began to realise that instead of trying to write like a pompous ass, my work flowed and read much better when I used my general jovial tone. That is why I keep things light-hearted. I know that I am never going to be a world-famous journalist and I am ok with that. Throughout this site and the novels that I have written, discovering the tone that I enjoy writing in was a huge benefit.

 

Be confident about what you are posting.

When I first started to create content, I can remember being incredibly self-conscious about what I was creating. I didn’t want anybody to read it, or if they did read it, I didn’t want them to know that I was the person behind the words. However, very quickly, I knew that thinking along those lines wasn’t going to work. By having pride in my work and putting it out there knowing that people could tie it back to me made me elevate my content in a way that I hadn’t done before.

 

Think about photography.

I began writing not because I wanted to be a photographer, but because I was good at communicating via the written word. With that said, what entices people to our sites is how they look. The image that you pair with your post can either make people read the words that you have written, or it can turn people away. And don’t get me wrong, without huge productions, you aren’t going to produce outstanding imagery, but look at other key players in your niche and analyse their images and what makes them successful.

 

As always, I hope you guys enjoyed this post and learning more about the advice I would give to people starting blogging today. It is the small things that really add up, but I truly believe that sticking at it, finding your niche and your writing style are imperative to you being able to go the long haul.

Please be sure to leave me a comment below. Be sure to let me know what you think about what I have shared above and if you think there is anything I have mentioned that novice bloggers should know before leaping in.