What I Learned While Launching My Blog
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This is part three in my beginner blogging series where I bring you along with me on this learning curve.
As someone who also started blogging recently, I found that all the how-to posts I was reading were from successful bloggers coming from the viewpoint of knowing everything worked out already.
So I wanted to write about starting a blog from the same level you are at--as an uncertain beginner!
If you haven’t already, check out the first two posts in this series, How I Started a Blog With Zero Experience and 10 Articles With Amazing Advice for Better Blog Posts.
And if you want to receive these posts and more in the order I post (and experience) them, sign up for my Beginner Blogging E-mail Course and learn along with me!
There is so much to learn when starting a blog, and if you’ve read this post you may have guessed that I decided to do a little research, jump right in, and learn the rest along the way.
I spent 2-3 weeks reading other blog posts, deciding on my niche, writing content, and getting my site ready and then I was LIVE.
Now, as I'm writing this, Im about 2 weeks into having my blog up and running, and I want to share with you everything I've learned over the last month!
Learning To Be Tech Savvy
First up, I want to talk about some of the technical stuff that I would have done a little differently if I’d understood it better.
Don't Wait For The “Final Touches”
As I mentioned in How I Got Started Blogging, I wanted to prove to myself that I was going to take this seriously before I spent a penny on actually creating my site.
This meant making sure I was able to write post after post about my chosen topics. However, I took this a little too far.
I had made a plan to start my blog on July 1st, so since it was nearing the end of June, I focused all of my energy on finding my niche, planning out content ideas, and refining my posts.
This was all great, except I didn’t really leave myself much time to actually set up my site.
While setting up Squarespace was pretty straightforward, I underestimated how much time it would take to get ALL of the little things in place. I thought all I really had to do was choose my branding (which I had already done) and format my site design.
What I didn’t consider were all the tiny little things that go into that—things like:
Setting up email sequences
Making sure everything is linked properly
Setting up social media pages
Setting up my domain email, etc.
While writing may be the hardest part of starting a blog, setting up a website, social media, and email list is the most time-consuming part.
You Can’t Publish Your Squarespace Site On A Trial
I, again, wanted to prove to myself that I was committed to this before spending any real money, and that meant taking full advantage of every free trial I could.
This was great with Squarespace because I hadn’t yet decided if I wanted to pay the extra $10/month for the professional tier.
It also meant I tried to plan everything I could about my website before signing up for the trial.
My thought was that I didn’t want to waste any of the 7-day free trial not knowing what to do with it and the sooner in the trial I could publish my website, the more value I would get from it.
As it turns out, you need an official subscription before you can publish.
So, in hindsight, I didn’t need to wait so long into my preparation to sign up and ended up purchasing a monthly plan with 3 days left in my trial.
You Don’t Need a Custom Domain Right Away
While there are certainly benefits to this, like claiming the rights to the site name you want, it's also not the end of the world to have yoursite.squarespace(dot)com, especially in the beginning. That being said, I only did only spend $20 for the first year on GoDaddy.
Look At Other Blogs
This one might seem obvious but look around! See what other people have and make a list of the things you do and don't like.
Pinterest is great for finding pieces like font pairings or color palettes but nothing beats seeing it all together in a live example.
Relying solely on a Pinterest mood board for your website design is like trying to combine things you like separately but haven’t tried together.
Sure, I love orange juice and I love coffee, but I don’t want them together. It’s not the worst thing but it's not great either. (Yes, I’ve tried it. Thanks TikTok.)
Window shopping other blogs in your niche is like asking the waiter what kind of wine to pair with your dinner. You want to go with what’s proven to taste (or look) good. Especially at the beginning.
Getting My Priorities Straight
Now, technical stuff aside, launching a blog is not just about setting up a website or getting your domain right. It's also a journey of self-discovery and growth. So here are the things I’ve learned on the intellectual side of starting a blog.
Profit vs Passion
As most people do, I started a blog intending to make money from it. While that is still my intention, I focused on it a little too much in the beginning. (I’m still in the beginning but I mean the VERY beginning)
I focused on profit so much that I tried to make my passion fit around it. I soon realized, however, that’s exactly the reason my last job didn't work out.
I’m really bad at selling things I’m not passionate about–and it's obvious to those I'm trying to sell to.
I also don’t LIKE selling things I’m not passionate about. It feels scummy. I don’t really even like selling things in general.
I’ve been on a tight budget. I’ve been on food stamps. I’ve been homeless. I know very well what it's like to not have extra money to spend.
Because of those facts, one of the things I AM passionate about is finding dirt cheap or free resources, and you don’t find those when you’re looking for a profit.
So instead of trying to fit my passion around what’s profitable, I decided to keep my passion at the forefront and only tie in things that bring a profit when they are relevant.
But don’t worry I’ll still have cheap or free alternatives or DIYs when I’m able to provide them!
In order to sustain this method of recommendations, I’ve actually started a Patreon for those who like my content and are able to offer support financially.
You will continue to receive my posts to your inbox with my FREE email list regardless, but if you want to help support me doing this full-time as well as receive some bonus content, you can check out my Patreon here:
(hint: if you sign up for my basic teir before the end of July 2023 you’ll get some sweet surprise bonuses in August!)
Passion vs Knowledge
While I was researching how to start a blog and find my niche, I spent a LOT of time narrowing down the topics I wanted to write about.
I moved to Michigan last year to go back to school to finish a Bachelor's in Fisheries and Wildlife. I have a life goal to visit every single AZA-accredited zoo.
My life’s purpose is to work with animals and make sure education about them is accessible to everyone because how can we care if we don’t know?
This is the field that truly makes my heart sing. I get teary-eyed just thinking about how much I love it.
So I thought it was pretty obvious what I should write about. I started my blog to write solely about the benefits of connecting with nature as a foothold to write engaging and educational content about wildlife in the future.
While that goal hasn’t necessarily changed, I did realize I was going about it in the wrong way.
While wildlife and connecting with nature are my passions, they are not necessarily something I am currently very knowledgeable about. At least not in a way that I can write 1-2 blog posts a week about them!
What I AM knowledgeable about in that same general area, is connecting with nature and following my passions while dragging along my mental illness.
This also happens to be a topic where ideas flow through me freely and I can absolutely write 1-2 blog posts a week for the foreseeable future.
I Didn't Know What I Didn't Know
All that said, I couldn't have figured that out without starting to write about it. I could imagine all the obstacles that might come up but the best way to see a hurdle is to walk right into it.
I followed the mindset that I wrote about in this post and just started with what I had.
The more I wrote, the more I learned about and refined what I wanted to write and what I wanted for my blog. That led to further visual site adjustments which led back to niching down my blog to MY personality.
Find a Community
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, I learned (or rather remembered) how important a good, supportive community is to success!
On the second day of having my website live, I think I subscribed to 5 different email lists. I also joined 3 different Facebook groups.
In just one day of being in these groups, I had gotten a ton of feedback. I made some minor changes to my blog and site structure which resulted in it looking SO much more put together and professional.
(Seriously, I almost wish I had saved my site as it first was. It was bad.)
And within a week I had even made a couple of friends!
Recap
So in the first week of blogging:
I learned not to procrastinate on making the actual blog.
I learned what was truly necessary and what I could’ve probably done without.
I learned how to narrow down not only what Im passionate about but what I can write about
And I found a wonderful community and even a couple of friends!
Overall, my biggest mistake was trying to set off at a sprint when I have a whole marathon in front of me but I think Im finally starting to set a proper pace.
So I hope you’ll join in and follow along and I'd love to hear about your own blogging journey below!
What have you learned so far? What surprised you the most about blogging? Let me know!
