I encourage anyone to try blogging. The worst thing that could happen is that you learn an important new technology even if you don’t have any readers. That’s valuable in and of itself!
Some tips:
- Use WordPress, an excellent, user-friendly platform.
Sign up for an account and start playing with it. Don’t be afraid; you don’t have to make it public or tell anyone it’s there. It’s not like hundreds of people are going to rush over to read it. - Have fun with it.
You’ll stay interested and keep your blog interesting! - Use the help button.
I think many older people have a resistance to reading instructions, but if you go to WordPress and press the help button or read the help forums, you can really learn a lot. I really recommend it. - Post often.
When I was creating my blog, How Not to Act Old, I visited the great site Stuff White People Like and counted how many posts he did in how many days. It was about three posts a day for a month, then slower after that. I did exactly the same thing. After the first month I had about 100 posts.The pace made it fun. It was a higher bar than I might have set for myself, but trying to just crank it out made my site feel very real very quickly.
- Learn to do the technical stuff yourself.
Some technical aspects of blogging (like creating internal links from one post to another) took me a while to figure out. I could have asked someone for help, but I decided I needed to learn how to do this – and I did. - Be prepared to be obnoxious.
Promoting my blog involved obnoxiously emailing my friends constantly. Also, about every third day I’d write something I thought was really funny and would send it out of the blue to a newspaper writer or some other blogger, saying, “I started this new site. Don’t you think this is funny?” And most of the time they would totally blow me off, but sometimes they would write something about it.One big boost came when a friend of mine sent one of my emails to her book editor at HarperCollins who also happened to be the editor of Meg Cabot. Unbeknownst to me, she sent it to Meg. Meg wrote a little thing about it in her blog, and it was read by thousands of people.
- Syndicate.
I write for Huffington Post sometimes. So when I was promoting my blog I would adapt content from my for Huffington Post and that would drive traffic to my site.
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I recently started my blog…What’s Happy Anyway…on Blogger. I started it simply for me, as a way to ensure that I would sit down and write something…anything..on a daily basis. I have a wonderful friend who has been my “promoter”…
It’s great therapy!
Ha! Just looked at your blog….love it! But there’s no way in hell I’m wearing a thong….
Right on!! I love finding people that have a similar attitude as myself!
I too started my my own blog back in March, InsightfulDevelopment.com, and it has been soo amazing, healing, and releasing. I feel like I have so much knowledge that I want to get out there! My blog is about Internet Marketing and Boosting Business Online. I have had some great mentors, but one thing I did…was teach myself. Google is an amazing resource! You can Google “How to buy a domain name” and boom!
Sometimes you will need to ask for help, and that’s ok, but try to take it one step at a time. Blogs aren’t built overnight. I started mine on WordPress (it’s a little more advanced than like BlogSpot.com, but it has so much room to grow with.
They say that once you hit 100 posts on your blog, something magical happens. I see it happen with my clients all the time too. I try to post 2-3 times a week (I only build my site on my spare time – which is a challenge because I’m building websites for people all day), and am over half way there now. It is sooo exciting. The first post will probably feel a little swkward for you. You won’t know what to say, who will care, why you are doing this in the first place even. Trust your intuition and start typing anyway. The words will start to pour out of you and then that magic happens. You touch someone’s life. Then it is all worth it.
These are excellent tips, Pamela. I was considering getting a Virtual Assistant to set up my blog. However, I am somewhat tech savvy and your message gives me the inspiration to get started already. Thanks.
I started my blog Aging Abundantly about three years ago when I was caring for my aging mother. I had so much I wanted to say about the whole process both for myself and others. I set it up on Blogger but have recently switched to Word Press. It is absolutely true that if you’re at all computer savvy setting one up is easy to do. Blogger is easier than Word Press but “I hear!” you can do more with Word Press. I’m still trying to figure it all out. If you like to write, a blog is lots of fun ~ and great for your writing skills!
Your message is so simple, just put it out there. I started a blog called Whole Weigh, and have rarely returned… wondering where is it and who will read it? But your words to just write whether anyone is reading made sense to me. How to link up and get readers will happen. Thanks for the gently prodding.
This is terrific advice. I started my blog, SuddenlySixties, last fall as a way to poke fun at the indignities of aging. (One post was dedicated to How Not to Look Old, as soon as I read it.) I find Blogger frustrating at times, and my few loyal readers, so far, have not figured out how to post comments. I wonder if I should switch to WordPress.
Thank you for your entertaining and insightful writing!