I love being a blogger. I feel so blessed to have been able to do something I really love and make money doing it for the last 7 years!
Blogging is a lot of work but it is also a lot of fun.
This past weekend I was able to attend the Build Your Blog Conference put on by Six Sisters Stuff in Salt Lake City Utah. This is my third year attending this conference. Besides looking for any excuse I can find to go to Utah (where my girls live) I love learning and getting together with my blogger friends each year. My friend Kristen from Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke and I got to spend some time together and she even treated me to lunch at a yummy waffle place in Salt Lake City!
This year I was asked to participate in a panel with the cute girls from Favorite Family Recipes. These three cute girls are sisters and I love their blog. I was honored to participate with them on a panel where we talked about “Becoming a Big Blog.” We shared lots of tips, ideas and suggestions for building your blog and answered questions.
I am often asked how I started blogging and how to start a blog. To help answer those questions I have put together a page here on the blog to share with you my Top Tips and Resources on How to Start a Blog.
This page is a work in progress so go pay it a visit and let me know what you think and what questions you have that I can answer on the page. Go here to visit Top Tips and Resources on How to Start a Blog.
I have been blogging for over a decade. That is a long time in blog years. I’ve learned a lot along the way. I often have people ask me how to start a blog, so I thought I’d share with you some of the things I’ve learned along the way.
You might want to start a blog just for fun, as a hobby, to share ideas and recipes with family or as a business. Just remember, blogging is fun but it is work. To make money from blogging takes consistent effort, time, patience and perseverance. It doesn’t happen over night (at least for most of us) But it can be well worth it! I feel so lucky to be able to do something I love every day and make money doing it
When I started my blog I literally didn’t even know what a blog was. I had only read one blog post before starting my blog. A friend had shared a recipe with me she had gotten from “a blog”. She sent me the URL to the post and I checked it out. The blog was a friend of her sisters, just a family blog. After checking out the blog, I thought to myself, I can do that!
I then went out to the local bookstore and bought Blogging for Dummies, really I did!
Here are the top things I learned about starting a blog:
1. Purchase a domain. Ask yourself the following questions when you are choosing a name/domain for your blog. What is blog going to be about? Who do you want reading your blog? Type out the name of the blog see how it looks with the letters all run together like it will appear in a url. Sometimes certain words can look funny when grouped together.
2. Select a host. If you are blogging for business, or even if you aren’t I think it is important to be self-hosted. This gives you more control and more options. Blue Host is a great place to start. It is easy to use and reasonably priced. You can learn more about them here.
3. Use WordPress. Using WordPress as your blogging platform is definitely the way to go and you can easily install WordPress using Bluehost. Bluehost is there for you and provides 24/7 customer service and support.
4. Design Your Blog. You are almost there! Once WordPress is installed and you can log into your blog you are ready to really make this blog your own! Because I am a little technologically challenged I hired someone to do the design part for me but if you’ve got some technical know how you can totally do it yourself. Select a WordPress theme from within WordPress (I use Genesis) and go from there. There are lots of great blog designers on Etsy that you can buy a stock design from or have them custom design something for you at a reasonable price.
5. Start Blogging. Now the fun really begins! One of the biggest stumbling blocks I had for starting a blog was I didn’t think I was a writer. You don’t have to be a writer to be a blogger. If you know how to talk, you know how to blog! Just write like you talk! People will grow to know and love your voice. Consistent blogging is a key to growing a blog. Whether you post once a week or once a day, just be consistent. Your readers want to know you are there.
6. Social Media. Social Media is an important part of blogging. It is how you will grow and promote your blog. Being actively involved in Social Media is crucial. After your blog is set up and you have a few blog posts under your belt you are going to want to get yourself set up on Social Media.
Set up a Facebook Page, Google+ profile, Twitter account and Instagram account for your blog. Invite your friends to follow your new pages. Share your posts and start sharing the blog posts of other bloggers. Social Media can be overwhelming so in the beginning pick a couple of Social Media platforms to really focus on. My personal favorites are Facebook and Instagram. This is where you will begin to develop a community. Be sure and be actively involved, commenting and replying to everyone. I schedule posts for Facebook throughout the day and post to Instagram twice a day, once in the morning and once in the early evening. You can check out my Facebook page here and my Instagram account here.
Pinterest is another very important Social Media platform and the biggest driver of traffic to my blog. Open an account for your blog and set up boards that apply to your blog topic. You can check out my Pinterest account here to see how I did it. Be sure that each post has a pretty, vertical, pinnable image. You are going to want to install a Pin It button too (this is easy to do through WordPress)
Additional resources for starting a blog:
Another really important part of blogging is photography. I have shared some of my food photography tips here but I highly recommend my friend Kristen Duke’s series of books on learning to shoot in manual. She makes it so easy and doable and it will make a huge difference to your photography. Click here to visit Kristen Duke Photography.
The other thing I have learned from blogging is hire help when you need it! I struggle with the technical side of blogging so I hire Cathy at WordPress Barista to handle all that backend stuff for me. It save me lots of time and money by having her do it instead of risking me messing it up and having it take twice as much and time and money to fix my mistakes! Cathy is great and takes really good care of me! Tell her Leigh Anne sent you!
Let me know if you have any questions and send me a link to your blog once you have it all set up! I’ll be adding more info and tips to this page so be sure and check back often.
Your favorite cornbread recipe made without any gluten.CourseBreadCuisineAmericanPrep Time10 minutesCook Time20 minutes0 minutesTotal Time30 minutesServings8 piecesCalories228kcalAuthorLeigh Anne Wilkes
Ingredients
1/4 C butter softened
4 Tbsp sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C sour cream or plain Greek Yogurt
1/2 C milk
1 C gluten free flour blend
2/3 C cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Grease an 8 inch cast iron pan or an 8 x 8 pan with butter
Mix together butter and sugar. Beat until creamy.
Add in eggs and mix well
Stir in sour cream and milk
Add in remaining ingredients and mix on low until combined
Put batter into pan and bake for 18-22 minutes. Until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.
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