9 Things I did before starting a Blog ⋆ Lucky Love Life

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9 Things I did Before Starting My Blog

Sooo, I bit the bullet and started this blog. Let me tell you, my learning curve over the next few months is going to be epic. But my drive to become my own boss and break free of the daily grind is of Mount Everest heights with Hawaii views. My reasons for starting a blog will be an article all its’ own but let’s talk about nine things I did before I finally shot out of the cannon.

#1. Hesitation. I Hesitated Before I Started My Blog

For as bad as I want my own freedom, I was shocked by how long I put off going through with it. I am not a procrastinator but to say I had some fears about this whole thing, um yeah. Failure is part of life and we learn some important lessons from it. Starting a blog was something I had given some thought to in the past, however, I just kept researching until I was almost self-talked out of it. For every success story, I found few ~~hundred~~ thousand failures.

Then another one of those days came. The days where you are nodding in compliance with your boss but in the confines of your head you have already told them off and quit. Every day at my job felt like failure. At least with the blog, I would be in the driver’s seat. More importantly, I have given myself the permission to fail forward. I finally realized that I can’t keep putting it off until I have everything lined up so neatly because I won’t get it all right from the get-go, but if I stay on it, I will nail it!

#2 Research. I Researched Blogging…a lot.

Filled half of a three subject notebook with notes and ideas. I watched video tutorials, read other blogs success stories, purchased a few e-courses, and let us not forget the dreaded Domain name search. Every name I could think of for six months was completely unavailable or on sale for a few thousand dollars. Completely Ridonckulous! I finally settled on one from GoDaddy. Then found a coupon on RetailMeNot saving me a bundle on my domain name. As I waded through the heaps of info I realized that I had better just get started. See, I am a planner and I was thinking if I had many of the key components in place, my blog would start out ahead of the curve, haha haha haha. I am truly grateful that I did some research but blogging is very much a learn-as-you-go kind of trade. As I write this I am silently cursing the new theme I picked out for WordPress because I have zero clues how to customize it. So if you are like me and waiting until you are better equipped to start a blog, forget it and start writing. [bctt tweet=” truly grateful that I did some research but blogging is very much a learn-as-you-go kind of trade.” username=””]

#3 Narrowed the niche….Sort Of.

Trying to figure out what you want to write about seems so easy at first until you realize how many things you are passionate about. I love self-improvement, relationship tips and hints, fitness, softball and financial Phoenix stories (rise from those ashes baby!). I am a movie enthusiast and could probably write a novel about solo-parenting. Here’s the thing. I can write an occasional article tying some of these passions into my site but I cannot have a site dedicated to all of these passions or I won’t actually be helping anyone, myself included. I figured the self-help market would be supersaturated. But as I researched sites that should offer what I would be writing about, I was sorely disappointed and surprised. I really couldn’t find what I was looking for. How many others were searching for the same answers as me, coming up frustrated after clicking through dozens of sites? I think it’s normal to start a little bit broad and after a few months of writing, articles we are drawn to writing will shine through. [bctt tweet=”You too, have something unique and valuable to offer as long as you genuinely want to help others.” username=””]

#4 Connect with other bloggers.

If you are hoping your blog will become an income, part-time or full throttle, then I highly recommend connecting with other bloggers. Seems counter-intuitive right? Not so friends. So many bloggers know exactly why you are starting a blog. They have been there and many of them are eager to help others find the freedom and success they have come to know. At the time I am writing this post I have zero social media accounts. Yep, none. Finding other successful bloggers was a bit of a journey. I found some successful peeps and joined their subscriber lists. I sent emails and asked questions, and posted in their comments. This step curbed my hesitation. They convinced me to go Nike. Just Do It Already! My favorites thus far are Abby from Just a Girl and her Blog (and her hubby Donnie), Melyssa Griffin from the Nectar Collective, and Amy Lynn Andrews. These women are kind, successful and down to earth. They really treat you like a friend and they want to help. Even when they were busy, I always got a response eventually. Abby is the one who inspired me to believe I could really do this whole online biz thing. Her program Browser to Buyer is worth its weight in gold and silver.

#5 The Technical Black Hole. Blogging Technology 101

I aced college but let me tell you, I have zero experience in anything computer related. Had never written code or formatted anything besides an excel spreadsheet. I wrote Donnie a few emails asking questions about site security and backup. I wrote Amy Andrews about making sure pictures were the right size for my page and how to easily make them Pinterest friendly. This is the area where I will be failing forward the most. My hope is that as I blog about what worked, didn’t work, or what threw me for a loop, I can help other bloggers with the same struggles.

#6 I watched quite a few WordPress tutorials.

Waste of time. Computer programs and software change all the time. All of the tutorials I had watched were outdated. As I signed up, I was routed to pages that were different from what I had seen. There were new steps involved. Bluehost live chat saved my bacon. I hope that in the very near future, I am one of their affiliates because they have treated me like royalty and I am quite certain there are middle-school aged kids asking fewer questions than I did.

#7 Wrote my About Me page.

The about me page might just be the reason people stick around and browse your site or hightail it to another site. I searched for some good ones and took notes on what I should and should not share. I am still trying to think of a better title than About Me because I think it sounds generic and honestly, a huge chunk of this page should be more about how you are planning on connecting with the audience. Until your readers really identify with the content, your bio is usually TMI.

#8 Made a lengthy list of article ideas.

Abby hosted a webinar with some fellow bloggers and they suggested you write down every possible idea you have for an article. I came up with 93 ideas in three hours. Some about blogging, some about relationships with family or significant others, and some about self-improvement. You do not have to know the title of your articles yet but you need to have some ideas about what you are going to be writing. If you cannot come up with very many over the course of a few days, you might have to adjust your niche. You want writing to be the frosting on the cupcake, not the batter you dumped too much baking soda in.

#9 Wrote 10-12 articles before going live.

As I was instructed by a fellow super successful blogger, create some posts to stay ahead of your publishing schedule. Yes, you should create a publishing schedule and try your best to stick to it. Life will inevitably get in the way at some point but regular publishing on set days gives you some credibility with your audience. I have dedicated two days per week for publishing. I have two days dedicated to learning back-end technical stuff, and two days of research and writing. When I say days, keep in mind I still have a full-time job and four kids. Why yes, I am part super-hero 🙂 I hope you choose to join this adventure with me and start one of your own as well. We aren’t meant to go it alone. My goal is to help you better meet yours! xoxo-Deanna