Digging up some old photos of where I’ve worked on the blog
{Update: This is part one. You can find part two about social media and monetization of a blog here. Part three is about Google Analytics and Google Search Optimization here.}
As I start a new blog here (though of course not completely from scratch) I feel like it’s a good time to touch upon what I consider the essential steps of starting a (somewhat-read) blog. When I started this blog (formerly known as Temporary Housewifey), I really didn’t know what I was doing. So I went to a Bloguettes course in LA that helped me learned the basics (how to do simple photoshop things, learn about affiliate networks, etc.) since I’ve always been a good student and wanted to learn from “pros.” It was a start but I learned so much more from just writing this blog. So here are some things I’ve learned on how to start a semi-successful blog after blogging for the last 5.5 years:
1) Be A Blog Reader
This is a no-brainer to some, but it’s an important thing to touch on because if you don’t read blogs, you probably won’t have the interest in continuing one. I had read blogs for 4-5 years before I started blogging (and I only started because a friend encouraged me to—I never thought I could do it myself). But I loved reading blogs so I at least knew what I liked about the “good” blogs. Also having favorite bloggers is important to create your community. I would link (and still do link) my favorite bloggers when reviewing an item because I like giving readers second opinions. This also got my blog noticed by some of the more established bloggers since they would see traffic coming from my site to theirs. And sometimes if you’re lucky they’ll link a post of yours and this will earn you some Google Search credibility (thanks Grechen for being the first to link me—I’ll never forget 😁). In the same vein, if you watch more vlogs than read blogs, start a vlog. Or if you’re mostly on insta, work on your insta content.
2) Pick a Platform
These days there are several website platforms you can choose from, though the top two imo are Wordpress and Squarespace (but there’s also tumblr, wix, medium, etc.). I use Squarespace because for the most part, they do all the web/tech stuff for me. So I can just concentrate on what I like to do the most: write. I also find Wordpress harder to navigate in general (I had used Wordpress for our GoSilver Airstream Business site). But the trade-off is that Squarespace has limited design capabilities (there’s only so many templates you can choose from, while you can really do anything and everything with Wordpress). Squarespace also costs more per year. I pay $96 but that is a grandfathered rate (+$20 for the domain name). Currently the cheapest is $126 a year. Wordpress can be free (but it includes WP ads), or at the cheapest without WP ads is $48 a year (but that has very limited capabilities). The WP equivalent to the plan I have in Squarespace is $96 a year. But I think if you’re starting a blog and don’t know if it’s something you’ll continue, a free WP account might not be a bad idea. I do have to say though, I’m really glad I am using Squarespace because they made my name change super easy (did all the post changes/redirects for me).
3) Start Making Content
So you don’t have to know what exactly you’re going to write about when you start a blog. I didn’t. When I first started this blog I had recipes (here’s a cookie recipe/happiness recipe post and a infused whiskey recipe post lol) and travel tips to Kyoto, etc. I wrote about everything I could think of, including reviews of items I purchased. It was only after looking at my analytics (more about this below) that I realized that most people found me through my reviews and could care less about the other stuff. So I focused on the subjects that people wanted to read about and it grew from there. Now I can throw some personal stories in (via my Weekend Update/Ramblings) and some people will read those. Also I have a blog notebook where I jot down any ideas I have for the blog and where I write my notes when I try on/wear something for a review. In general I think jotting down notes are key for any writer.
4) Be Consistent
It takes a lot of content (usually) to get noticed. I’ve been writing 2-4 posts a week for the last 5.5 years and I’m still a small-time blog. If you don’t think you can do even one post a week, it might not be the best time to start a blog right now. Also when I mean consistent you don’t have to be writing every day or even every week. I’ll have spurts of writing where I’ll complete 2-3 posts in a week and then nothing for a week or two after. Since you can save posts as drafts and schedule their publication, it’s just about writing enough so that posts can be released consistently.
5) Use Google Analytics
Squarespace comes with Google Analytics (GA) integrated into their platform, but I prefer to look at my analytics through Google’s analytics page since it’s a lot more comprehensive. To set up Google Analytics in Squarespace you need to start a GA account (it can be tied to your Gmail account) and get a UID number. Then enter that UID number into Squarespace (Settings>Advanced>External API). When I started the Temporary Housewifey Blog I still had to use code injection (also found under Advanced in Squarespace) so they make it a tad easier now. I won’t go into here how I use GA because that’s very lengthy and deserves its own blog post in the future (update, it’s going to be part 3 of this series). But just know that having the data through GA is crucial to understanding which are your most popular posts and how people are finding you.
6) Set Up Google Search Console
Along those same lines you’ll need Google Search Console (GSC). This is seperate from GA, since GA will tell you about your website stats but GSC will tell you how you’re doing in Google Search. GSC will tell you things like what people are typing into Google to find you, what position on the search page you are for that query, etc. These are the instructions on how to add GSC to your GA. Readers might get to your blog in various ways (insta, pinterest, other blogs) but the bulk of most bloggers’ traffic comes from Google Search (well at least 60% for me). So it’s important to know your data.
Ok so I think that’s a great start to writing a blog. Making content of course is the most important thing but using data to find out what’s your most found/read post is just as essential to get some traction. There are a lot of blogs/websites/apps/etc. out there competing for people’s time and attention and even though we bloggers mostly write for ourselves (or else we couldn’t continue doing it year after year), it’s very nice (and validating) to get an audience who appreciates your work and becomes your online community. I’m grateful to have made some great friends through this blog but I could never have done it without lots of content and a few good posts.
{Check up top for the links of part two and part three}