Start Blogging: What You Need to Know

Considering to start blogging? Combining blogging with fiction writing has a lot of benefits. Plus, nothing has the same satisfactory feeling as publishing another blogpost on time with your blogging schedule.

Blogging is an opportunity to practice different forms of writing, and a fabulous way to get noticed in the online writing and reading community. The minimum you need to accomplish is one blogpost per week, a pretty attainable goal.

But beginning a blog comes with its struggles. The set up is moderately easy and doesn’t need to take a lot of time, but finding the internal strength to start—and keep going—is a struggle.

Once you do get your rhythm, it is a decision you won’t regret, and the benefits are unending.

A Sad Start to Blogging

I decided to start blogging when I became a member of Jeff Goin’s Tribe Writers course and community. If my memory is correct, I became a member in October 2016, bought my domain and website hosting in early November, and then got stuck.

I was being taught to not wait for perfection before publishing blogposts on my site, I was scared that would bite my butt down the road. 

What if people saw my unfinished site and never wanted to come back? Or, what if they liked a blogpost but I didn’t have a mailing list for them to subscribe to and they forgot to come back? I worried about my worldview statement, and if the content of my posts wouldn’t be what I would always want to write about. 

All this caused me to procrastinate. I went against the invaluable teaching telling me it was okay and natural to keep improving and tweaking your website and blogpost content down the road.

Despite the teaching from the great blogger Jeff and the successful writers around me in the Tribe Writers community, I didn’t trust everything would work out with time after I started my blog. I felt I needed all the answers right away and couldn’t start without them.

By thinking this way, I didn’t publish my website for two months. 

Pushing Publish

On the last days of December I forced myself to publish my website, because I didn’t want to enter the new year with my goal of starting a blog unmet. 

My first blogpost was published that January. As I kept going and gained understanding of how blogging worked, I got more comfortable, and found my teacher and fellow writers were completely right about starting before you feel ready.

Why? Because most likely you will not know from the start what you will want to write about a year or ten years into the future. You’ll even find seasoned writers who tweak their focus as they feel pulled. 

My worry about subscribers? Well, you need to gain traction first, and that requires a lot of good posts being written—a product of practice and sharing a lot. 

What about your voice? Shouldn’t you find out what your writing ‘voice’ or style is before you try to build a platform? No, it will reveal itself as you write your future thousands of words. 

Looking back, I wish I knew what I did now. The way to accomplish new things is to commit to doing it, and then just figure it out. This applies to everything in life.

To get things done you need to embrace the unknown. Half of the process is learning all you can about how to do it, and the other part feels like jumping off a cliff and hoping your parachute will work. 

Sometimes what I tried failed, other times I was surprised at the good outcome, and every time I gained experience to do it better the next time. 

Will You Start Blogging?

Because you decided to read this piece, I assume you are thinking about starting a blog, or you are blogging. Whichever is true, you know what you want: You want to take this next step into your writing future.

All you have to do now is commit and figure it out.

It sounds scary and overwhelming, and it can be, but it is also the greatest feeling when you do figure it out. Building a blog isn’t unattainable for you. Anyone can start, and I believe anyone can make it a success with the right knowledge and motivation to venture into the unknown.

Don’t be like me and let the fear and trust issues keep you from starting something amazing right now. Embrace the uncertainty. Treat each endeavor with the excitement of what it could, and will, bring. 

I have complete faith in your ability to figure out blogging. Remember: Everyone has had to start, they’ve all had difficulty finding their footing, and they’ve come out on top. There is no reason why it won’t happen for you—unless you don’t start. 

Start Blogging

What you need to do right now is simple:

1. Commit to start a blog.

2. Find great resources to learn how to blog (I learned from the great blogger Jeff Goins).

3. Start taking action and figure it out as you go.

Seriously, that’s all. 

Blogging is a game of experimenting. I have changed and tweaked my message more times than I can recall without a catastrophe. 

Don’t get caught up in eyes watching you. No one knows of you online at this moment, which means you have time to get your blog together.

Featured photo by Georgie Cobbs on Unsplash