I get asked about my blog a lot.
Specifically, from people who want to start one. I’m always happy to talk (at nauseam) about blogging, what I personally gain from it, and how to start.
After talking to my friend Amanda (Insert Annabel asking, who the FUCK is Amanda? Sorry, inside joke) and answering some of her questions, I realized it might be a good time to write a post about it.
Although you know, I hate talking about myself (also a joke).
Here are the things I think you need to know about starting a blog:
It takes awhile to find your voice.
Don’t let that discourage you. I still don’t know what this blog is about. When people ask me what kind of blog I have, I usually just make something up. “Uh, travel? Life stuff?” is a go to answer. Sometimes I’m feeling too narcissistic and I tell people it’s to keep my Mom informed on my happenings. It doesn’t really matter. It’s about how I’m learning to live my life.
I’ve also gone back and forth about my use of curse words, how detailed I should get about being a single girl (if you catch my drift), and how much I should share about my personal life. The internet can be a scary place, and no one wants to end up on the news for sharing enough for someone off-balance to find her and throw pigs blood on her car or something.
Questions about truth, security, and how much you want to share with the world are questions you’ll always ask yourself. Take it day by day. Don’t let any of that discourage you. Don’t wait to decide before you start.
You have to be OK with people reading (or not reading) it.
It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes, I’ve gotten angry texts or messages about posts. A lot of this happened when I was new to blogging, and during a particularly challenging time of my life, I used it as a diary. I regret that. I needed to express myself, but I got a little too personal and people’s feelings were hurt. They should have been. You can’t say anything you wouldn’t tell someone to their face. I know that’s cliche, but that’s a real thing. This can’t be a forum for you to tell people to go F themselves, and if it is, you need to be prepared to deal with the challenges of that.
On the flip side, there are some posts of mine that absolutely no one reads. A lot of people tell me they skim my stuff. That’s fine. It needs to be fine. If you’re doing it for attention, you won’t ever be completely fulfilled by it, because you’re not doing it for yourself.
If you keep wondering what you should write about, you’ll never get started.
Again – there are posts of mine that no one reads. I don’t say that to discourage anyone else from writing, but to encourage you to write about whatever you want. If it’s for you, write about literally anything that gets you excited. Write a post about dinosaur farts if it makes your heart sing.
Actually, don’t, in case I decide to.
I will say that the most interesting posts and articles I’ve read are brutally honest or super weird ones. I have an old friend that had a blog about burgers. Not fancy hipster burgers – plain ass burgers. Why? Because she fucking loves burgers. That’s reason enough!
There are enough blogs about how to make a fucking quiche or where you should sit under the Eiffel Tower. If that’s what you want to blog about, that’s fine, but do me a personal favor and make it genuine.
It won’t be perfect and at first, you won’t be good at it.
Nothing about my blog, my Instagram feed, or my life is perfect. Don’t challenge yourself to project that. People see right through it, or they kind of resent you for it. If I see one more Instagram picture of some perfectly tanned girl on a boat with a big hat that some hot guy that never called me back could probably date and have a perfect life with, I’ll barf. Your life isn’t perfect. Don’t pretend it is. It’s hard for people to relate to that, or hey, maybe I’m just a jerk and I can’t relate to it.
Also, at first, writing and putting together a blog will be both super easy and also, really hard. It comes in waves. Just accept that at first, you won’t be great at it. But as my friend Jake says, “Sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something”. Stick with it. Write some shitty, short posts just to get it out of your system. Don’t show anyone. Then, explode and write a super magnificent post after spending a night out with your friends drinking too much tequila, or wandering around downtown Savannah drunk at 2 AM. Write it from your bed, drinking black coffee the next morning, wondering where your debit card went and why your head hurts so much.
Write those posts. Write the posts that come from real, raw and gritty things. Strive to be weird and imperfect.
That being said, have some fun and be yourself.
If writing and blogging isn’t fun for you, you won’t do it. Seriously. I strive to never have this feel like work, so it doesn’t. I write when I feel the most, and spewing those feelings out on WordPress makes me feel better. It really does. I’m starting to consider writing more about other stupid things besides just travel and self-improvement – Bloody Mary’s, doodling, car camping, and minimalism. Those things don’t really fit together, but I love them and they make me happy. Write a blog post about brown M&Ms, different shapes of trash cans, the sounds your dumb neighbor makes at 3 AM… write about ANYTHING!
Do it. Start now.
I can’t wait to read it.
Quick, logistical things I also get asked about:
- I use WordPress and I host off Hostgator. This blog costs me $20 a month to run, mainly because I’m also still paying for vintageandnerdy.com. I really don’t want to let that domain go, but I don’t use it either. You can get a similar plan for like $10 a month.
- WordPress walks you through everything. Everything else is a Google away. Don’t be afraid to get on tech support and ask silly, basic questions. That’s how you learn.
- I try not to use other people’s images, but if you decide to, you really need to show where you got them from.
- I have a SEO plug-in, but I don’t really maintain the meta titles, descriptions, etc. I think a part of me doesn’t want to be found on the Internet. But it’s super easy and you can do it, too.
- I spent anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours writing a post. Sometimes more, depending on what else I have going on.
- I don’t think of ideas. They think of me, and attack me when I’m doing something else far more productive. They don’t go away until I sit down, dump words out in Word or a blank email draft, and start putting a post together. I always run my posts through spell-check, I read them out loud and make edits, and I make corrections that my far more detailed-oriented friends catch and text me about.