To blog or not?

Over the past year I’ve gotten quite a few questions on my point of view on blogging. Questions includes everything from how to start blogging, if there is really a point to start a blog today, to what to blog about. 

     In this post I thought I’d sum up my advice regarding all these questions - starting with why I believe I can help you guys and why you should take blogging advice from me.

Why do I believe I’m the right person to give advice when it comes to blogging? 

Well, I may be only a hobby blogger but I have been blogging since 2010. I’ve also been reading a lot of blogs during this time. Mostly lifestyle and fashion/style blogs, but not only blogs from the big, successful bloggers who can live of their blogging and are big names within the influencer world, but also lesser well-known bloggers and other hobby blogs just like mine. 

My own blog journey

My first blog was almost inconclusively made up by posts filled with text, almost no photos. It was a light version of a lifestyle blog. Focus was primarely on everyday life with a humorous angle of writing and also a lot of blog posts with my personal opinion on different matters in our society. 

    I used a crappy blog portal that wasn’t very userfriendly to someone starting their first blog and had no idea on how to format a website (no mention of the name of this blog portal), which was my first error. 

     I then came across another blog portal when reading other blogs and liking the way those bloggers had formated it in to their personal style of a blog. It seemed userfriendly and easy to adapt in to your own liking and I found a lot of helpful articles on Google on how to formate the blog in to ways I wanted it to look like. 
     In 2012 I changed to this blog portal, where you’re reading right now - Blogspot, also known as Googles own blog portal, Blogger. 

     You may wonder what the cause to my own blogging was to begin with? Well, I’ve always been fond of writing and reading myself. I wanted a space where I could write about what I wanted and a place where I could document my life for future purposes, kind of like a virtual diary. I also wanted my family and friends to be able to keep up with me and my life - hence, My Life by Malin was born. 

Still to this day I love to document happenings in my life, not only with photos but also with text to remember it all even more clearly. Although now, my blog has also turned in to my creative space when it comes to style and sustainability and a place where I may (I hope) inspire other fellow style lovers in these matters. 

     Now, let’s get on with some of the questions I mentioned I’ve been receiving and some of my advice when it comes to blogging! 

Is there any idea to start a new blog today? 

Not knowing whether to start a new blog or not can be quite discouraging- These days, everyone seem to have their own blog and we are flooded with social media posts where users promote their new blog post. 

Start by asking yourself: what do I hope to get out of my blogging? If it’s instant fame, money or fast collaboration possibilities with big well-known companies I suggest you definately think again - overnight success and fame as well as instant sponsorship and collaboration opportunities with  international popular brands/companies happens extremely rarely. If that’s what you're really after I’m sorry to disapoint you. 

Blogging to really get somewhere and to be noticed takes a lot of effort, consitency and work. Becoming a big shot within the influencer world today means a lot of dedication and patience, putting your heart and soul in to your blog (and/or other social media, e.g. your brand and business) and not to mention your entreprenour spirit. It’s not just creating content, it’s about branding yourself, to be social and market yourself and your blog/business at every opportunity you get. Consider it a full time job, if not even more than a full one.

     Non the less, if you are willing to put your soul and heart in to your blog and if you’re willing to treat blogging and content creating as your prime work, and you’re willing to let it take time before things truly start happening - at least a year but probably more like two years - then I say you should definately go for it! There is a chance to succeed within the blogging world today and influencer marketing is a really hot potato nowadays. In my opinion, it's here to stay. What more is, brands and companies these days do not focus all their energy on the famous influencer - microinfluencer business - where lesser well-known influencers often with a following below 10 K or even below 1 000 - is becoming bigger and bigger.  

Where should I blog/What blog portal should I use? 

I cannot stress how important it is to do your research before you choose a certain blog portal for your blog! There are tons out there so another advice is to actually try a few of them out before setting up your real, proper blog. By that I mean: choose three different blog portals you’re interested in, set up an account and start exploring the different tools of those blog portals. Some things to consider/try out: is it possible to adapt/format the look of the blog? Can you choose a cover, a photo of your own, to show at the top of the blog for your visitors to see when they arrive at your blog? (And before you ask - no, this was not possible to do on the very first blog portal I bloggede at). Can you change the layout on the blog, on the way the posts are publiced? Is it possible to change colors on the background, the font of the text etc in the blog posts? Can you yourself choose how comments should be published, what size photos in the post should be? 

Furthermore, what about adding elements in the sidebars of the blog, or so called widgets? Is there any good statistics methods of the blog portal? 

     As you can see, there are a lot of factors to consider before choosing a blog portal, specially if you’re a newby at blogging. Just be sure about what is most important to you for your blog before you choose platform. If you don’t know a lot about HTML code or generally don’t know a lot about how to format a web page on your own it may be a good idea to choose a blog portal that has a lot of options but is pretty easy to format yourself by just a few clicks. This is why I love Blogger. 

What should I blog about? 

If you already don’t have a clear idea on what you should blog about, maybe you should re-think WHY you want to blog in the first place. If the only reasons you can come up with is because "it's cool" to blog or you want to earn money and become famous - well, like I wrote above. Serious blogging in the long run takes a lot of time and effort. 

     The easiest thing to start with, however, I would say is lifestyle blogging. Take your readers with you through a typical day of your life, include photos of what you’re up to, who you hang out with, where you hang out. Don’t forget to show photos of yourself and maybe a casual outfit photo (if that’s what you yourself is interested in). It can be anything related to your ordinary life to the more extrordinary things happening in your life.

How should I start my blog? 

Well, step one is obviously choosing where to blog (blog portal) or to create your own web page for blogging. 
     A good way to start a new blog is always by giving an introduction to your blog and what the blog will be about. Why should readers follow your blog, what can they expect to read about on your blog, what will be the main focus of your blog? This post doesn’t neccessarily need to be a big, huge blog post, especially not if you’re just a hobby blogger. 

     I suggest preparing a few blog posts, between 5-10, before really announcing your blog to the world, e.g. your friends, family, colleagues, aquaintances, other social media channels etc.

Let your readers get to know you, set the tone of your blog and don’t be afraid to get personal with your readers in order to really let them get a sense of who you are and what they can expect from you when it comes to how you write. 

How often should I blog? 

This depends on what kind of blog you want to have. The luxury with running a hobby blog is that you don’t need to produce content as often or as regular as oppose to if you run a blog as a full time job hoping to profit from it.

     For me and my blog, it runs in periods depending on how creative I feel, how much time and energy I got and if someone else has time to meet up with me in order to help me photograph my outfits.

     One thing to keep in mind, tho, is that your readers will grow custom to your rate of blogging. If you post to your blog once every day for a certain amount of time and all of a sudden start to post once every third day or irregular you might start loosing those trustful readers. So before you decide on how often you are to blog keep in mind that it should be a realistiskt goal for you to keep that pace up! I believe my readers are fairly custom to my irregular ways of posting to my blog, seeing I’ve been blogging for such a long time and always very irregular. 

How can I promote my blog? 

Thee absolutely most easy way today to promote your blog is through other social media channels like instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Not neccessarily by paying for promotion through an ad, but of course you’ll reach a greater audience with paid promoted posts. 

     However, if you do not have the money or for any other reason don’t want to pay for promotion I suggest promiting your own blog posts through your own social media channels. For example, by mentioning your new blog post in your instagram post. 

     Joining Facebook groups for support and promoting your blog within said support group is another way to promote your blog for free and a fairly easy way to get your blog noticed. 

     Last but not least: word to mouth. Promote your blog or a certain blog post you wish to highlight while socialising (of course, where it’s fitting), at events etc. 

My general advice:

Blog about something you find fun or something you’re good at. Don’t try and force yourself to write about something just for the sake of it, or because you think it’s what people want to see or read about. It won’t make you happy in the end. Be genuine and do it your own way. The creativity will shine through. Don’t try to imitate someone else or copy what they do/how they’ve done it - it will eventually shine through that it’s not your own ideas. Once you stop looking at other people and stop imitating them and  instead find your own way to do things - that’s when you’ll start to really succeed. 

Don't be discouraged by the amount of blogs already existing - don't let that stop you from launching your own blog! If you feel like doing it - just do it. There's no reason why you shouldn't start it up as a hobby blog only to have it turning in to a lifesupporting business later on. 

Good luck blogging!