Looking for simple beginner blogging tips to get you blogging consistently and grow your audience? These are the 15 simple blogging tips for beginners that will help you grow your blog.
Starting a blog is exciting and if you’re a beginner blogger like me, you are doing all the research you possibly can to make sure you are following the right steps to create a blog that others will find and read. After completing my second month of blogging, I am giving you a sneak peak into the blogging tips that keep me blogging consistently.
You are going to learn simple yet strategic things you should be doing during your first few months blogging from the perspective of someone who is currently going through it.
After learning these essential blogging tips and tricks for beginners, you will be on your way to creating more posts easily and consistently.
This post is all about the best beginner blogging tips every first time blogger should know.
Best Beginner Blogging Tips
1. Enroll in a Course
It is so worth it! Find a blogger that you like and see if they offer a course. I stumbled on By Sophia Lee on my YouTube feed and I am so grateful that I did. I loved her YouTube videos where she gives straightforward, honest advice on how she grew her own blog while she was a college student into a full-time business that generates over $80,000 A MONTH! That’s insane. I am a full-time teacher so hearing about how she managed to do this while being a full-time student resonated with me.
Not to mention, I look at those old posts now and oh boy, I had NO idea what I was doing!!
After watching free online videos from BSL, I learned that she had a blogging and Pinterest course bundle. It was $249 when I purchased it and let me tell you, I am so glad that I did.
As I sit here writing this post on my laptop, I have her course open on my phone. She walks you step-by-step on exactly how to write your blog post.
The first post I ever did took me over 8 hours to write, from researching what I was going to write about to finding a photo on depositphotos.com to actually clicking publish on wordpress.
Two months later, the process from beginning to end takes me a little under 4 hours. And I figure that as I continue down this road it’ll start to take me even less time.
If you are starting a blog for leisure or as a hobby, then you probably are not so interested in the “right” way to do it so that you rank on Google and other search engines. Learning about SEO, keyword research, and the tools that you can use to improve the traffic to your blog might not be important to you.
But chances are, if you are reading this, then you want to start a blog that you can monetize and increasing traffic to your site is the best way to do this.
By Sophia Lee teaches you how start a blog from scratch, from choosing a niche and webhost to monetizing your site through affiliate marketing.
So a MUST for any first time blogger is to make the investment and sign up for a course to learn from the experts. It will cut down on the amount of time that it’ll take you to learn to blog on your own.
2. Commit to a Blogging Schedule
Decide how many times you can post a week. Don’t go in over your head because you’ll just burn out quickly and will decide to ditch blogging.
I know that right now I’m still in the learning phase and with my full-time teaching job, extracurricular responsibilities and being a mother of four, I have a lot on my plate. So I know that right now I can post once a week.
If you have more time on your hands, then post two or three times a week. The more you post, the better.
However, what’s most important about blogging is consistency. So I have committed to publishing my blog post every Saturday around 6 p.m. No matter what, that blog post MUST go up ever Saturday evening. It is a commitment that I have made to myself. Laundry can wait. Tidying the house can wait. But my post MUST go live Saturday night.
Holding yourself accountable to this commitment is the key to blogging consistently, and once a week is not impossible. Eventually as I get even faster with the whole process, my goal is to blog twice a week. I want to have enough drafts ready to publish so that I keep a consistent blogging schedule even during weeks when my full-time responsibilities at work and in my home don’t leave me with much time to write.
3. Braindump
Think about all of the things that you are good at. Think about all of the reasons that your friends and family go to you for advice. What do you know that others don’t? What can you teach others? What experiences have you been through that could help someone else in your shoes?
Get a binder, notebook, or a digital note-taking app and just start writing ideas on anything and everything that you can write about. From the simplest to the most complicated of ideas, just write them all down.
This will help narrow down your niche and will also help you with ideas on what you can create blog posts on.
4. Keyword Research
Ubersuggest.com is free for up to three searches per day per device. Doing keyword research is important in giving you ideas on how you can phrase your blog title and how to narrow down ideas so you can rank better.
Let’s say you are starting a mommy blog as a full-time working mom. You might want to write a post on “balancing work and motherhood.” But on ubersuggest (at the time of writing this post), there is a search volume of 50 searches a month and a search difficulty of 59 (pretty hard to rank for). Maybe you think “how to balance career and motherhood.” But that has a search volume of 10 and a search difficulty of 66 (even harder to rank for it and less people are searching it). But the following options have a search volume of 10 and a search difficulty of 5, 5, 8, and 7 respectively (meaning they’re super easy for you to rank for):
- how to balance work and motherhood
- mothers balancing work and family
- how do working moms balance their lives
- how to balance motherhood and career
So doing keyword research and learning all you can about SEO is super important before you title your post so that the information you are trying to convey will reach the right audience.
5. Just Write
No one is reading your blog yet. So it doesn’t have to be PERFECT before you click publish. You can always go back and edit if you need to (but don’t get carried away with rewriting the entire post, just focus on making minor changes like spelling or grammar or fixing a hyperlink).
The more posts you create, the better you’ll get at writing.
When I sit down to blog, I open my BSL blogging course and follow her exact formula for titling my post, writing the introduction, and finishing the post. The “meat” of the post I just create a simple outline of what I want to write and then start writing. Here’s how the outline I created for this blog post looks:
To make writing easier, remember that a lot of people will read your post from their phone. So keep your paragraphs short (2 to 3 sentences). This is way easier to do, especially when you’re first beginning.
6. Create a Content Calendar
Once you have a bunch of ideas written down and you’ve taken the time to keyword research, get yourself a calendar and start plugging in what post you’ll do when.
If you go to sites like Google Trends, you’ll be able to see when that idea is most popular and plan on writing about it a few months in advance. This way it’ll give Google time to process your post through their algorithms and then you’ll appear on searches. If you use Pinterest to grow your traffic, that will also take time. So a Christmas post should be up by September to give it enough time to get traction.
A content calendar is also great for when you don’t have the motivation to sit down and write. It’s so easy to lose that motivation when you look at your page views and realize that for all this time and work you’re putting into your blog, NO ONE is even coming to your page.
But that’s ok. It’ll be ok (or so I hope!).
A content calendar keeps me focused with the ideas that I need to hit the ground running with and it motivates me to start the post.
I like to plan one month in advance. I know other bloggers plan months or a year in advance. For me, a month is good for now. I will write down the main posts that I want to write about and then in case I change my mind or don’t get to it, I still have that idea which then rolls over to the next month.
Having a content calendar is so necessary to keep you focused and organized when first starting your blog.
7. Stay Motivated Even Though No One is Visiting Your Blog
Remember that blogging is not easy, it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it’s a long term project. The work that I’m putting into my blog today I am sure will pay off in a year or two. Of course, I want this to happen sooner rather than later, but I figure that if I am consistent and keep showing up, people will find my content and the information will help them solve a problem in their life (at least that’s my goal).
Things I do to get me motivated is listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, meditate, think of my vision board, and sit down, open my binder with my content calendar, and just start writing.
So focus on the end goal rather than harp on the current situation and try to make blog posts that are worth reading and will help solve someone’s problem.
8. Done is Better than Perfect!
100% it is better to have a completed blog post than a perfect blog post. Having a deadline of posting every Saturday night for me really keeps me focused and I finish my blog. Once I am done, I just move on to the next idea. Like I mentioned before, no one is reading your blog yet, so you can always go back and edit if needed.
I do go back to edit when my featured image doesn’t look right, or when I find a misspelling or something doesn’t read well. I’ll check my links to make sure they work correctly. But that’s it! The blog post stays and I move on to the next one. I did as good of a job as I could’ve and it’s DONE, which is way better than perfect.
So if you have a bunch of blog posts, ideas, outlines, and you’re waiting for them to be “perfect”, there is no such thing. You are going to get better and better at blogging the more often you do it.
9. Learn for FREE from YouTube and Read Books
There is a wealth of free knowledge available to you on YouTube and via podcasts. There are numerous blogs on blogging and free resources including free books to help you with productivity, motivation, idea creation, and just about anything you might need to be a successful blogger.
Here are a few of my favorites on YouTube:
- By Sophia Lee
- Project Life Mastery
- Kayse Morris
- Ali Abdaal
- Cathrin Manning
- Gillian Perkins
- Pocketful of Primary
- Allison Lindstrom
Here are a few of my favorite books:
- Rich Dad Poor Dad
- Show Your Work
- The 4 Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
- The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months
- The Secret
10. Break down larger tasks into smaller chunks
Whenever I have some down time, I will work on a small part of my blog post. I will do keyword research on Ubersuggest and I will screenshot my phone so that I have that research done before I sit down to write.
I will think of a topic to blog about and I will then try to find a good title for my blog post by visiting this blog post:
15 Types Of Blog Post Titles That Get Clicked: A Beginner’s Guide
11. Keep a List of Passwords
When you start blogging, chances are that you have a login and password for your webhost, your blog, your stock photo website, canva, pinterest, etc. Keep all of your logins and passwords on one list so that it is easily accessible to you and you don’t have to waste time trying to remember your passwords.
12. Create a Cheat Sheet
Once you get the hang of blogging, create yourself a cheat sheet or checklist on the entire process so that next time you sit down to create a blog post you can easily just go down your list. It’ll cut the amount of time it takes you to blog and will keep your posts consistent.
13. Find the Best Time to Blog
We are all different. Some of us are night owls. Others are early birds. By the time it’s 7:15 a.m. I am in my classroom teaching so I am up by 5 a.m. everyday. I am definitely an early bird and I can wake up at 6 a.m. on a weekend without a problem and work on my blog for at least two hours before anyone else is up.
Find what time fits best in your schedule so that you are most productive. I try to work on my blog at nighttime, but quite frankly, by that time I am exhausted from my full day at work and then from being at home cooking and cleaning and getting everyone in bed.
So I know that for me, mornings work best. The other time that works best for me is when I just get home from work before I start dinner. I can usually squeeze 30 minutes.
You can do a lot in 30 minutes! You can work on your ideas, fill in your content calendar, do keyword research, find your featured image, or simply do an outline for your next blog.
14. Have Pen and Paper Close By at ALL Times
Ideas will come to you throughout the day. Keep a small journal or get an app so that you can jot down these ideas. Sometimes it’s when you’re listening to someone on YouTube or when you’re driving. Write all of those thoughts and ideas down so you don’t forget them.
15. Give Yourself Grace
Last weekend I did not meet my Saturday post deadline. It was a tough week at work with lots of planning and grading. It was my nephew’s birthday party and I was having a sleepover with my family at my house. Honestly, I just could not find the four hours I needed to get my blog post published and I did not have a backup post ready to fill in.
But it’s ok. I was bummed out at first, but it’s ok. Family to me is so important and so it was fine to take that week off. I made up for it the week after and currently am working on having backup posts for any weeks that don’t afford me the time to blog.
So there you have it! 15 Beginner Blogging Tips from someone who is going through the process just like you. I have always heard that when people make it in this blogging world and they give advice to complete beginners, often times they have forgotten what it was like. It’s easy to hear from a blogger that’s currently making 5 to 6 figures a month that everything is going to be ok and just trust the process, you’ll get there one day.
Well, I’m currently a beginner myself and these two months blogging have taught me a lot about myself, about discipline and about working towards something that’s bigger than me to help others just like me.
I hope you found these tips useful. Happy blogging!
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