Starting a blog can be a mix of emotions. I remember I was nervous, excited, anxious, and overwhelmed. Don’t worry those feelings will go away! Today my blog turns a year old and I am so excited to tell you all what I have learned! For you new bloggers, ones that want to blog, or bloggers still in your first year here are some tips I have learned!
Can you believe that For the Love of Blank is one year old!? I CANNOT believe it! I feel like 2017 just flew by! In my last year of blogging I have learned so much. No, I don’t have a huge Income report to share with you, just my tips I have learned along the way with the top five things I wish I knew before I started my blog!
Hosting
First we started out our blog with a paid WordPress account. I cannot stress this enough DON’T DO IT! You cant monetize with WordPress hosting. We had to pay Bluehost $175 to switch everything over to their hosting platform to actually be able to monetize. We can still edit our blog with WordPress. Don’t make the mistake we made, just start with a host that will let you monetize.
Your first post will feel awkward, but its okay they get better!
First of all My posts have come a long way, and I’m sure in the next year they will go even further.
Here is my first post ever posted. I keep it the un-updated so I can check back to see how far I have come!
Here is one of my recent posts I’m very proud of!
Guest Posters are a Life Saver for a Busy Week!
I love utilizing guest posts so I still have new content coming out on weeks I’m out of town or have, busy with my full-time job, or have tests at school. We have come up with a list of standard for our guest posters to fit our site the best possible and so far have had great results! Here they are:
We also send them a small set of questions to answer and introduce themselves. Read an example of a guest post here. If you would like to guest post on For the Love of Blank, please email me, Jordyn, at fortheloveofblank@gmail.com
Views….
This was a hard one to learn, at first you will have days where no-one, I really mean no-one, looks at your blog. Don’t let it discourage you. As you get more links out on the internet via Pinterest, Facebook, other sites, and eventually just having more content, you will get views. Just keep on Blogging on!Great ways I found to up my views in the first year was:
- Stumble Upon
- Facebook Groups
- Being SEO friendly with every post
As my blog continues to grow each month, I keep making my goals higher and higher for views. In July we only had 526 views, then in August we jumped up to 1,395! My goal that month was only to break 1,000. Once you hit that first giant leap you will see your views doubling, even tripling along the way.
Co-Owning a Blog
For the Love of Blank is co founded by me and a childhood best friend. This was the best decision for me because of how busy I am. I work full time as a hairstylist, she works full time for the local newspaper, I’m a student full time and a mom to a demanding two year old! This works best for me because we can divide and conquer. Brittany, the other half of my blog, runs our Instagram and Twitter. (BTW go enter our Blogiversary Giveaway on Instagram before Friday 1/12/18 at 8 P.M. Mountain time!) While I run our Facebook Page and Pinterest.
Besides splitting up the responsibilities of social media, we have split other duties. Brittany is in charge of all business inquiries, and I handle all the guest posting. She runs our calendar and I handle our income reports on Google Docs. Splitting up everything makes us work more efficiently and saves us time to still be able to do everything else we need to get done in everyday life.
Lastly if each of us posts once a week we are now getting two pieces of fresh content out there! Check out Brittany’s newest post here!
One last note…
If you have yet to start a blog and are wanting to just do it! You will figure everything else out along the way! Good luck! And If anyone has any questions please comment below or send us an email!
Happy 1 Year to For the Love of Blank!
I Can’t Wait to see where year 2 takes us!
-Enjoy!♥
