In the previous article we looked at the most important decisions before starting a blog and “buying” your very own virtual patch of land. The next 5 points will help you “cultivate” and write your first blog posts.
When choosing your blog “theme” there’s a large number of free as well as paid themes available, but you can also customise your website the way you like (which, of course, requires some extra knowledge, or get someone else to do it for you).
The style and theme of your blog should reflect the blog’s content because an integral whole makes a great first impression. For instance, a light-hearted blog goes well with vivid colours, beauty blogs often have pastel colours, you can’t go wrong with blue if you’re writing about underwater diving... Luckily, just browsing the internet a bit is enough to find something to your liking (and, perhaps, you won’t even have to make any alterations).
Yes, even before you start writing, there’s some technical stuff you need to deal with first. Plug-ins are software components that add functionality to your website – they serve as antivirus protection, offer insight into the website traffic, enable video playback or image viewing in the form of galleries, display social network icons on your website etc. You can find plenty of articles on the internet that list plug-ins which are strongly recommended.
Even before you start writing the first posts, create a page with a short description of yourself and your blog. Then add contact information (on the same page or create a new one) and, what’s also important, add a link to a page with information about privacy policy and data collection (those cookies that aren’t baked in your grandma’s oven).
There, it’s finally time to start writing! A blog with a single post is going to look a bit boring, so you should write at least 5–10 posts before your “official launch”.
After you’re finished writing, the posts (usually) need to be visually edited in Wordpress*, and photos, videos, table of contents and other things need to be added (e.g. pins if you’re using Pinterest).
*WordPress is a content management system used for creating websites.
There, it’s finally time for you to officially “launch” your blog. Publish is together with your posts and share it with your friends and on social media.
Congratulations, now you’re a blogger, too!
Every beginning is hard, but it gets easier – the same goes for writing a blog. I would like to put to you the following – write about things you like and compare yourself to others who have been doing it for quite some time, they, too, were once just beginners. Nothing can stop you now!