And luckily for you, I’ve decided my couple of months of (fairly) consistent posting has made me an expert (disclaimer: I am not), so I thought I’d share my knowledge with you all. 

Firstly, a bit of background. 

I admit, this blog is not my first attempt. That goes to a now-deleted blog I started in 2016. Then I decided I hated my chosen platform and made three new blogs in 2018 and here we are. 

So you could say I’ve been doing this (inconsistently) for four years. 

Anyway, on with a guide so foolproof, it could be dangerous. Because now any idiot could start up a blog and spread nonsense on the internet. 

Perhaps this contradicts my entire blog because this is essentially an archive of my nonsense, with no clear theme. 

But, I have to be honest in my advice to you. And quite frankly, my stats on my more niche blogs are much better than this one, so this is a tried and true piece of advice. 

Unfortunately, I cannot afford to travel much so my travel blog went out the window, so. 

Anyway, the point is, directing your blog at something specific will be beneficial if you want to generate more interest and views. It will also, in some ways, make coming up with content easier, because you’ll always have a rough idea of the sort of content you want to produce. 

Now, that you’ve decided that you want to post student-savvy recipes or your life travelling Europe on a motorcycle, it’s time to pick a platform for your blog. 

I, personally, have always stayed far away from anything you have to pay for, because I am poor. 

Do your research, think about what you want to use your blog for and have a little click around on various sites that offer you a place to put your blog. 

I have had experience with WordPress, Wix and Blogger, and eventually settled on Blogger in 2018 and stayed there ever since. 

I can’t exactly remember why I never went with WordPress, it was quite a while ago, but for two years prior to settling on Blogger I used Wix. 

Eventually, however, I decided I wanted something with less customization options, so that I could focus solely on writing because I ended up spending hours exploring all the little things I could do, like adding photo carousels on my home page, rather than actually writing posts. 

So keep your needs in mind. If you’ve got a product to sell, you will need a site that accommodates this. If you want to post your photography, you’ll need options for how to display a multitude of photos. And if you’re like me, you will need something as minimal as possible so you don’t get distracted. 

Now before you launch into setting up the blog for real, you’re going to want to have a little think about what you want to call it, any pictures you want to use, what sort of colour scheme you want, etc. 

Preferably you want to at least settle on a name before you start on the process of building your blog, but this step can be combined with the next step as you may need to see what sort of templates your platform offers. 

So, with regards to the name, you want to consider a few things.

• Is it relevant?

• Is it memorable?

• Is someone else using it?

As a quick exercise to get you started in the naming process, write down a few key words about what your blog entails, what sort of content you hope to post, or just words you like. Maybe one (or a combination) of these can be a starting point for a name. 

Hop online and start setting up your blog. I feel like you’re on your own a bit with this one, so just follow the steps given by your chosen blog platform.

Before your blog is good to go, you’re most likely going to want to create a few pieces of content so that you’re ready to post when your blog goes live. This way anyone who’s interested in having a little read will have more to look at than a simple, “Hi, I’m [insert name here] and welcome to my blog!”

Alright, once you’ve followed all of the above 5 steps, you should be ready to hit that ‘Publish’ (or equivalent) button.

And there we have it, your very own blog. So if you think you can do it better than me, then go ahead.

Go forth and blog.