How To Start a Blog

They say everyone has a novel in them well, I’m not sure about that but I am convinced that everyone has a blog in them.

From parenting to photography, fashion to food, we all have a special interest and it is so easy to set a blog up and write about what you enjoy doing.

I started my blog as an outlet. I thought, being a farmer’s wife, I would have something different to offer the world. I have since found out that there are other farmer’s wives who blog but that is the great thing about blogging-there’s room for everyone. If you think about it, depending on what blogging niche you fall into, there is really a small pool of things and ideas to blog about. The fact that everyone has different lives, different children and different ways of thinking means that I can blog about, say, my baby’s first tooth and it will be totally different from another blogger’s post about their baby’s first tooth.

My little piece of cyberspace has been therapy. It’s provided my family with experiences and days out we wouldn’t usually have been able to do and it gives me a bit of focus in a world full of sheep movement forms and nappies.

The beauty of blogging is that you don’t need any money to begin. Internet access is obviously helpful and some kind of thing to type on-whether it be a computer, laptop or tablet. I’ve even been known to bash a blog post out on my phone if I’ve been struck down by inspiration (it does happen sometimes). You also need to choose a blogging host. The most popular I think are Blogger and WordPress. I use WordPress and am quite happy with that. I think it is all personal preference.

The most important thing to think about is a name. I made the mistake when I began of calling my blog FWAM (the acronym for Farmer’s Wife and Mummy). I thought it was snappier than the long title but in reality? Who would know what FWAM meant? I changed that pretty quickly.

The other important thing is the synch of all social media accounts so that they have the same name. I have managed this with Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest but for Twitter I used my own name which is fine but it can be hard for people to find if they only know you by your blog name. It is too late to change because I don’t want to lose the followers I have but it is worth thinking about if you are setting up social media platforms for you blog.

If you are doing it for a hobby, that really is all you need to know. I remember getting excited that three people read my blog in the early days (one of them was my mum) but if you want people to actually read what you write, rather than it be some kind of cathartic exercise, you need to promote what you write and that is where social media comes in.

When I press publish on my WordPress account, my blog post automatically shares to my blog Facebook page, Twitter, Linked In and Google+.

You can look at referrals on you blog stats page. For example, my top referrals have been from search engines like Google followed by Facebook and Twitter.

I am by no means an expert. I have learnt as I have gone along but in April 2016, I will have been blogging in earnest for three years.

It is always funny to go an have a look at your first blog posts. My very first post just said Hello World which, looking back now is ridiculous and I am not going to lie, I deleted it.

Now, my first blog post is about Chickens. You can read it here. It is not as cringe-worthy as the original first one but it still makes me smile.

I think it takes a while to really find your ‘voice’ but once you do, you’re all set.

I’ve blogged about nail varnish, fashion, cooking, pregnancy, parenting. The list really is endless for what I can harp on about and that is what blogging is all about. The ability to tap into your inner-soapbox and get things off your chest.

So what are you waiting for? Get blogging today.