With most of us spending more time at home that usual during the Coronavirus pandemic, you’ll certainly be looking at old hobbies to re-ignite and new creative ventures to keep you busy, especially if you are not currently working. In my recent blog post: Get Creative in Self-Isolation, one of my suggestions was to create your own blog.
1. The Starting Blocks
Choose your platform
There are a number of various websites to set up your blog for free. I use WordPress, its very easy to use but I pay to have a .com domain. You pay yearly, and there are various tiers of what is available. If you want to keep the cost down you can have a free WordPress blog but it will have to appear as follows: www. WEBSITENAMEHERE .wordpress.com domain or use other free blog sites such as Blogger and Square Space.
2. Why blog?
Blog writing can be whatever you want it to be. You can write in whichever style you want, whether it’s a conversational Carrie Bradshaw-esque tone, or a professional business blog style.
Think about what you would be interested to read, and that can set the foundation for your first blog post.
3. What to Write
What is the topic you’re going to focus on? Have a think about what your USP (unique selling point) could be and how you can use your skills, experience and hobbies to translate into a blog writing. Then think about the content itself, what is the purpose of your current blog post? When writing, you should consider the who, what, when, where and why as an outline, see my examples below!
You don’t always have to stick to your chosen niche, maybe you want to throw in a ‘monthly favourites’, a ‘what to watch’ list or ‘product review’ here and there. Remember, there are no rules, this is your blog!
Top tip: Keep it snappy – nobody wants to read an hour long, 3,000 word blog post!
4. Branding
Although you have a blog and you are not a brand, you should still consider uniform branding across the board, to create a presence, aesthetic and continuity among your blog posts.
You can source branding kits online, via freelance graphic designers, and Etsy. These designers put together branding guidelines; featuring the fonts, colour palette, logos and other imagery to stick to, all unique to your blog/brand.
Top tip: shop around as Branding kits can be very pricey – ask around if your friends know any graphic designers who may be able to help, or try putting one together yourself!
5. You may not know…
- When you post a blog, anyone in the world will be able to find it
- Potential and current employers might be able to find your blog – this could be a great or terrible thing!
- If you don’t have a personal domain (.com) and you opt for a free .wordpress.com domain then you will not own the content you produce and post online
More Resources:
How to plan and write your blogs: How to Plan Your Blog Posts
Tips on creating impressive, free images: Creating Images For Your Blog
For basic blogging tips: “I want to create a blog but I don’t know where to start“
A blog by Amy 
Most of the time when starting career as a writer people do very common mistake by choosing wrong writing category which make harder them to write. For example if they travel a lot but rather then choosing travel blog category they write about another genre, They’re doing it wrong if you put your hobby with your work side by side it will work better.
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Thanks, Amy
I will start right away😊
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Thank you Amy! This inspire me to start a blogging.
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