You may be considering starting a blog but are not sure where to start. It sounds too obvious but the place to start is well, at the start. Put pen to paper and start writing. It really is that simple. My advice is to write about your passion. What is it that you cannot imagine living without ? What lights a fire in your soul ? These are the questions you need to ask yourself. When you have a passion for what your writing about, it shows.
Also be unique. Don’t be afraid of being yourself. There are lots of blogs out there but what makes yours special is that you wrote it. Your blog does not need to be like someone else’s, just yours.
For me writing a blog has been a journey. I have been learning as I go and I still am. Before I started I knew nothing about blogging or the technical side of things and I have just taught myself by researching and being genuinely interested.
I started my blog less than 2 months ago so I am what you might call a new blogger and I still have a long way to go but I am enjoying the journey and if you have been reading any of my posts you will know that I am insanely passionate about my son and autism. For me, blogging has been a hobby and therapy all at the same time. If I could make this a successful part time job I will be very happy but that’s a long term goal. My primary reasons for writing are because I enjoy it , I want to share it and I want to share it with my son when he is able to understand.
I have compiled a list of 5 reasons why I blog and why you should too. Within this post are affiliate links. If you purchase through my blog I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
- Something to share with my son.
My blog is a bit like a journal. Keeping a diary of things we have done together. Quite often in the past I have wished I had a notebook to write down something funny he has said. Well now I do. Every time he says something funny or makes me laugh, which happens a lot, I take a note of it and use it in my blog posts. When he is older it will be nice for him to read all about himself and the memories we have shared and the funny comments he has made. I hope we can share it together. Hopefully google won’t decide to remove all my hard work for some reason and it will be accessible for a long time. I have considered printing off my blog posts, just to be safe. Or maybe I should transfer it to some memory stick or something. Again, I am still learning so I will figure it out.
2. Write about and raise awareness about your passions.
Maybe you love fitness, cooking or horse riding. Maybe like me your a devoted mum , passionate about your children and want to write about them . My passion is my son and my interests are with Autism. My blog was recently ranked at number 8 in “The best UK Autism Blogs. Check it out at https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_autism_blogs/ . Here you will find a comprehensive list of some of the best Autism blogs in the UK . Whatever it is your passionate about, writing a blog is an excellent outlet for your creativity and your opinions and experiences will be of interest to someone out there . You will appeal to like minded people who share the same interests. Find your niche, your area of interest and knowledge and write for that audience. You don’t have to be an expert in your niche , just passionate and have some experience. A desire to help other people and raise awareness of your chosen subject, is important. Just be yourself and write how you feel. Just go for it. It’s like therapy. Which brings me to my next point.
3. It’s a hobby and therapy in one.
As a mum to a child with Autism, life can be hectic, demanding , challenging, tiring and of course rewarding. Where better to channel those emotions than within writing. Getting it all down on paper can be cathartic. It’s the same as when you have trouble sleeping because you have a million thoughts rushing round your head. If you write it down , then you get to sleep. Blogging is similar. Get it all out of your head and onto paper and it’s strangely healing. If your feeling angry , vent! If your feeling stressed, reach out and if your feeling happy, share. It does wonders for your soul, trust me.
Whatever your passion it is bound to evoke all emotions and getting them onto paper and into your writing can only be a benefit in my opinion. When your passionate about something , it will show in your writing.
4. Help others in your niche.
Being able to help others is rewarding and if you can help just one person through your writing that has to be an achievement. There are always people looking for opinions, views and advice on subjects that matter to them. Personally, I like to write for parents who are in a similar situation to myself. I like to feel like I am reaching out and offering a metaphysical hand in friendship. Autism parenting can be an isolated existence and parents can often feel alone. Through my blog I hope to connect parents and make it a little less lonely. I like to feel that I am offering a place for parents to share experiences and vent their emotions.
At this point I would like to make a personal recommendation. I borrowed this book from my local library and I found it extremely useful. Please click on the link for more information.
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5. Make money from blogging.
To make money from your blog could take some time. I think in the beginning the focus should be on building an audience and driving traffic to your site. To do this just write loads and use your social media to promote it. Pinterest is an excellent platform to show case your blog and reach a greater audience. That’s my personal preference of social media but others may prefer Instagram or Twitter as a marketing tool. I think the key is to master one of these platforms first then once you have mastered one of them fully, then move onto another one. With Pinterest you can download a lovely little app called Tailwind. You can use this app to schedule your pins being published. I have just discovered this and it can free up a lot of time for you and keep your pinning consistent.
To drive traffic to your blog from Google you need to use a little thing called SEO. Search Engine Optimization. This means basically making your blog more highly ranked on Google and making it appear when people search for it. To do this you can purchase plug ins for your blog and you can also research key words. By using certain key words in your content you become more prominent on Google search engines. I am still learning this myself so am not able to offer much more information on that. Hashtags are also important when categorizing your content and posting your content on social media. Hashtags, quite simply, enable your site to be found.
To actually make money from your blog requires a bit of patience and research and a willingness to learn. There are many ways to make an income from your blog including placing adverts on your content, affiliate marketing and selling digital courses and products such as e books. I have recently read a book called “The She Approach to starting a money making blog”. I read this book in one day and have attached a link below for you to have a look at.
Check out Ana’s course on how to start a blog, by clicking below.
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At this point for me, my focus is on creating something to show my son and enjoy my writing as a hobby however I would like to make money from it in the future. That would be the icing on the cake for me. I am not sure if making money should be the number one priority when starting a blog. I think the reasons for writing should be because its rewarding. I believe making money should be an after thought, however I suspect others will have a different opinion and that’s ok too. Just like your blog should be unique to you, so should your reasons for writing one. Of course I would love to have an income from doing what I love. Is that not what we all want? If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will, so go for it and get writing. Thank you for reading. Please comment, share or follow.
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