If you are looking to start your journey into the world of blogging, you’ve come to the right place! Learn about the best blogging platform to buy, how to set it up, and classes you can take to learn the basics of blogging. Get advice starting a blog from someone who’s been there! 

I’ve always liked the idea of starting a blog.

I love to write, and sharing my writing on a blogging platform sounded like a pleasant pastime. It wasn’t until just recently that it became something that I saw as a real possibility to be more than a pastime.

I had been teaching for four years, and I struggled a lot emotionally. Eventually, my anxiety got so bad that I became physically ill, too.

I knew it was time to end this chapter in my life.

When my contract was up with my last school, I started to consider what I wanted to do next. After A LOT of thought and research, I felt drawn to the idea of building a blog where I could teach and write to help other people live purposeful lives that they feel good about, regardless of personal achievement.

I was scared to get started, because I know that it can be a risky project to take on. But I decided that it was time for me to take a risk for something I love, and I dove right in!

Today I want to share with you all of the steps I took when starting a blog.

I also wanted to share with you how I felt at the time, too, because my guess is that if you are starting a blog, you are probably feeling the same way. Now, my niche is not to write about blogging, but I do think it’s good for every blogger to have a bit of information about how they started their blog. I made a lot of blogging choices based off of bloggers that don’t specialize in teaching about blogs.

I hope that my journey can encourage and guide other people who want to start a blog, whether it’s for fun OR for business. S

o let’s stop with the intro (oops! I got carried away there) and jump right in! 

Starting a Blog: How to Feel Less Lost in the Blogging Game 

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Know what you’re getting into and commit!

I would argue this part of the process is the absolute, most important part when starting a blog. If you are not 100% committed, then every step of this journey is going to be hard for you.

This doesn’t just mean to blindly go into this feeling confident about your conviction. You need to do a little research, first. There is no need to study up for weeks, but you should at least look at a few personal blog  posts about what it’s like the first few months of starting a blog.

You need to know the good stuff AND the bad so that when you experience it for yourself, you are not surprised and ready to give up.

I’ll provide you with some resources that can show you both sides of the blogging experience, but I also want to share with you what I got from my own research and what I have experienced in my personal journey (though, granted, I’m only one month in). 

Pros of Starting a Blog

There is certainly a lot to be said about the benefits of blogging! It is nice to have a personal space to design as you like it and to be your own boss. Blogging is a great form of passive income once it is all set up and properly established. It is a nice way to engage with the world, and it is easy to find value in your work. You can see how it is helping people. You can also choose your own hours, so there’s a ton of flexibility in when and how you work. It is also easy to travel while working, since all you need is internet access.

It’s great for people who are looking for something that they can do from home, and it’s especially good for people who are sick and tired of the typical 9-5 “daily grind”.

Personally, these were all HUGE benefits for me. I wanted something that I could do that would use my writing and teaching skills. More than that, though, I wanted something that would give me wiggle room in my schedule. After four years of teaching, I got tired of having a job that left no room for a personal life during the weekdays. I hated that I couldn’t go for lunch with a friend, or that my 9pm bedtime was NON-NEGOTIABLE, or that I spent my weekends feeling anxious about Monday. I needed a job that I felt passionate about and that didn’t fill me with dread. Blogging felt like the perfect opportunity! 

Cons of Starting a Blog

Just as blogging has a lot of benefits, it also has some things that may make you change your mind about whether or not you want to do it.

As I’m sure you’ve heard from bloggers already, it is not easy work.

There is a HUGE learning curve when starting a blog, and when you’re starting from scratch, it will all feel insanely overwhelming. There is so much to learn, so much to write, and never enough hours in a day to get it all done. Blogging is also a lonely job, especially in the beginning. For the first three months, you likely won’t be getting much engagement, so you won’t hear much from your audience. Additionally, you will be working from home, so you probably won’t interact with people as often.

Another big downfall to blogging is that you likely won’t be getting paid for your first three months of work, possibly even for  your first year. It is also risky, as you can’t ever guarantee your success month by month. Finally, all of the pressure is on you to do the work. There is no boss to blame things on when a plan falls through.

Almost every blogger deals with these issues at some point, and you can expect them, too.

If you feel that the pros outweigh the cons, then all that’s left is for you to commit to putting in the time and effort!

Personally, I found some of the cons to be a non-issue. For example, I LOVE spending time by myself. I actually learned that spending more time by myself  helped me handle my social anxiety better when it was time to hang out with people. Additionally, I enjoyed the massive task list. I like that blogging keeps me busy and teaches  me new things every day!

My biggest issue that I had with blogging wasn’t even really on this list, so I want to tell it to you now.

It actually had to do with my reputation.

I’m only a month into blogging, so it is still hard to see how I will ever succeed in this right now. When people ask me what I’m doing for work, it is always a really uncomfortable situation. I hate trying to explain that I’m learning about the world of blogging and trying to get one of my own up and running. Blogging is a realm that so many people have no understanding of, so you get a lot of  weird responses when you share what you are working on.

This has by far been my biggest struggle, but I’m determined to push through it. I’m practicing gaining confidence in my decisions even when they don’t look good to the people around me. I still struggle, but I’m getting better! And improvement is what I should be aiming for, not perfection! 

Resources to Hear About Experiences from other Bloggers

How to tell if Blogging is Right for You

18 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Blogging

The Truth About Blogging: 5 Things Bloggers Don’t Tell You

Pros and Cons of Working as a Blogger and Influencer

Pick one training video and follow it well. 

I’m not going to re-teach what someone else teaches perfectly. I don’t typically talk about blogging on my site, so instead of teaching you with my own stuff, I want to redirect you to the people I followed to get started.

They’re called “Create and Go”, and if you have looked at all into blogging creation, you’ve probably already heard of them and their “5 Day Blogging Bootcamp”. The bootcamp is a great free course to walk you through all the steps to creating a blog. They will have their own resources to provide you, as well as helpful video courses to guide you through the entire process. Everything they recommended was easy to grasp and extremely useful.

When I was done with their free email course, I had all of the basics for my blog set up. I  prefer the method of just picking one training video and following it, opposed to researching in a bunch of different places. If you get too much information at once, it might get too overwhelming. Instead, just pick one training course to get you started. There are a lot of free training courses you can take (courses with more depth and specificity get more costly). 

Click here to see their step-by-step guide with accompanying videos!

(You can also sign-up for their course from this page).

Things I spent money on and things I used for free

I am a frugal person. I don’t like spending money on anything, and when I also don’t have an income rolling in, I get even more stingy.

So if I spent money on something, you can know that I felt it was more than worth it.

When you do your training videos, you will hear bloggers tell you that blogging is an investment, and they’re absolutely right.

Starting a blog requires an investment of both your time and your money.

You can’t cut corners. Some things will need to be bought. It helps to look at your payments as a business investment. When you recognize that the money is being spent to help your blogging brand, it feels much less frivolous. 

That being said, I want to share with you the investments I made, as well as the places where I am not spending money. 

Where to invest your money for your blog

The first thing you invest in absolutely NEEDS to be a paid blogging domain. A free one really just isn’t gonna cut it.

I used WordPress as my domain, and I made my account through Bluehost.

Bluehost is an extremely established hosting site, and there is so much positivity amongst its users. After using it myself, I can also say that I have nothing but good things to say about their company.

An extra tip: if you want to really commit to blogging, I would recommend the three year plan. It’s cheaper overall, and makes it clear to you that you are going to stay committed to your blog for that period of time. When money is on the line, you tend to work at it a little harder. 

The second thing you MUST have on your blog and simply can’t do on your own is the legal pages.

Every blog needs it, but it’s so full of legal jargon that there is no completing this on your own. You have to get a lawyer for it, because  it absolutely needs to be done right. You can try to do it yourself, but that is going to require a HUGE investment of your time, and if you do anything wrong, then it was wasted energy in the end. I knew I  had to get a lawyer, but like I said, I’m not a fan of spending money. I didn’t drop a hefty fine to talk to a lawyer, so I went searching for other options.

And that is when I found Amira, a lawyer who specializes in legal pages for blogs and small business owners. She does what a lawyer  would do for a fraction of the price. I did a lot of research to see what others experienced with Amira, and they all had raving reviews. So I spent  the money to get her legal bundle, and I’m so happy I did! I would highly recommend that you stop your search right now and buy her legal bundle. It’s easy, reliable, and a great price!

You can get her legal bundle right here!

The last thing that I spent money on was the  Pinteresting Strategies course.

Bloggers kept saying that if you want to get ahead in blogging, then you will need to invest in courses so that you can start things out right. Again, I was hesitant, but after spending my first month trying to get oriented to all of the new things I was interacting with, it started to become very obvious to me  that courses were going to be necessary in order for me to grow  as a blogger.

At first, I wasn’t so happy about this, but then I started thinking of it another way. When you get a new job, you ALWAYS receive training. No one in their right mind would just send you to start working without any understanding of the different programs and approaches their company uses.

It’s the same with blogging; you need training in your new job. Now, I still didn’t want to spend a lot of money, so I went with Pinteresting Strategies because of the recommendations I saw online and the fact that it was significantly cheaper than other courses. Now, I am currently taking the course, so I can’t attest to its effectiveness yet, but I will update you once I’ve given it a fair try.

You can buy the course right here!

Things I didn’t spend money on

There are a few things that I have yet to spend money on, and (so far) I haven’t found any issues with that. 

Because I was just doing a simple blog and knew nothing about blogging themes, I went with a free one for the time being. I personally haven’t seen any issues with that so far. Further down the line, however, I might have to pay for an upgrade. 

I have yet to put any money towards Tailwind. It seems to be mostly a time-saving application. Since I’ve got a lot of time, it didn’t seem worth the money. The writer of Pinteresting Strategies does manual  pinning, so the course will show me how I can maintain my Pinterest account without  paying for Tailwind. 

I don’t spend money on Canva, stock photos, or any third-party services. Again, this is because I have plenty of time, so I feel I can do it myself. In addition,  I think it’s really good, as a beginner, to get oriented with all of the different things that go into creating a blog. It helps you get an idea of how things work, as well as the skills that you have. It is a good way to find out what you are good at and what may be better if you paid someone else  to do it. 

Create a TON of content!

Once the blog is  actually set up, it’s time to create a lot of content. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. Writing blog posts, making pins for marketing on Pinterest, writing more blog posts…

There is no agreed-upon number of posts you need to have before launching. However, the general consensus is the more, the better! To actually get a following, you will lots and lots of content. Aim for as many as you possibly can. It’s not easy work, but it’s definitely fun!

Final Words

Learning how to start a blog is not an easy task. It takes a lot of conviction, determination, and discipline to create and maintain a blog. Before you get started, you NEED to be sure that this is what you want by being aware of both the good and the bad things that come with blogging. Once you’re sure it’s what you want, you can find a free training video to get you started. You will have to spend some money, but remember that blogging requires some investment. More than anything though, enjoy the process! You have so much to learn, and you will be so proud of the progress you make every month! Happy Blogging! 

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