Starting a blog - Now what? ~ Judith L. Davis

I swear every smart device in this house listens intently to my words and thoughts! They want to know what crazy scheme I am up to next. So, it is no surprise that I am now inundated with information on starting a blog.

I started back at this blog last week. Pulling all my content from the other one and combining them. This one is not well populated yet, but it works on it.

But now, every time I go on anything, from Google to Facebook to Pinterest, all the – how to start a blog info comes up.

So, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.

Starting a blog – Now what?

I have had a blog for almost 20 years. You would think in all that time, I would have found some success. That along the lines somewhere, I would have found a devoted following.

No. Because here I am starting a blog again. It may have the same URL, but it is entirely different. It has different content and different ideas.

In 20 years, we change. We change a lot. Let’s see, where was I 20 years ago?

I lived in a small town in North Carolina.
My kids were kids. I mean actual kids under 18.
My husband was in the military, kind of sorta of, he kept getting mobilized in the reserves.
I was 20 years younger and a lot of pounds lighter.
My hair wasn’t as grey.

Twenty years have changed where I am at. I mean, physically, we have moved back to Texas, but all the other stuff has changed to.

All this, is it any wonder that my old blog post doesn’t resonate with me anymore?

So where is the blogging world now?

The blog world has changed too! It used to be just housewives and dramatic teens with coding skills that had blogs. You’ve all heard of the “mommy blog” right?

How I despise that term by the way.

Now it seems everyone has a blog. Lifestyle blogs, and beauty blogs, not to mention the DIY blogs and the gardening blogs. You name a topic and I guarantee that I can find a blog about it!

WordPress, the framework orginally designed to host blogs online, has now become the framework for most websites, and way more than blogs!

The rumor is blogs are dead

It seems that everyone wants to start a blog, because, well, it used to be a quick and easy way to make money. Is that still true?

You listen to anyone out there and you will hear that many say blogs are dead. Its all YouTube and Instagram now.

People search for things on Social Media now instead of Google? I guess it makes sense, people are on social media more.

Blogs are not dead

It is my humble opinion, and I’ve done a fair amount of research, that blogs are not dead.

But they are more work.

It used to be people would pay just about anyone to do a sponsored blog post for them. I know, I used to be one, with a very low readership, but still got paid to do them. Not a lot of money but a bit here and there.

Now it isn’t that easy.

You now have to actually work at making money. To get it out there and have eyes on it, you have to know SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You have to market your blog.

It’s almost like you have to treat it like a job!

Let’s face it, most people don’t want jobs, so that is where the rumors of “blogs are dead” come from.

Let’s experiment here on this blog

My blog, in any of it’s many lives, has never gotten a good following. I don’t do all that stuff I just talked about.

But I want to. Do I get points for that?

My loving husband has always told me that I need to treat it like a job. Chasing around 4 kids that I homeschooled never really allowed me to treat it as a job. But as I said before, my life has changed!

So here we go!

Starting a blog – Now what?

I am going to make this into a series. A series that you can follow along with. If you look up there in the menu, there is a blogging option. Consider that your play list.

This will be the first one in the series. A “why am I doing this, per se”.

I will try to update this once a week, so you can see my progress. I will share the good and the bad. and if I go silent, well then you will know it didn’t work out so good.

Starting a blog – step 1

Don’t let anyone dissuade you.

If you really want to start a blog. Do it! But do it for the right reasons.

It is not a get rich scheme. Yes, it might make you money, but it is going to entail a lot of work for you to get to that stage.

You cannot just make a few post and the money will start to magically flow in!

It’s going to take a lot of time and effort.

So my step 1?

Put every thing you have heard about blogs, and blog creation in the trash. You are going about this for you! And you are going to do it your way!

Starting a blog – step 2

Start writing down your ideas about what you want to blog or write about. Your going to need to have a supply of ideas.

Years of experience have taught me that you may have all the greatest ideas in the world, but if you don’t start a list, when you sit down to write them, your mind will go blank.

Happens every single time!

So start your list of ideas. It can be on traditional paper. It could just be a note on your phone.

Just have it somewhere you can refer back to it.