Why shouldn’t you create a personal blog

You may want to create a blog to share your experiences or simply because you enjoy writing. Others blog to share ideas, opinions or important things going on in their lives. You can make money blogging too, but like me, why not simply do it to record your memories.

Here’s some simple steps I took when building my blog to help you get started:

1. Think of a name for your blog – do your research and make sure there is not already another blog, social channel, service or product with a similar name. If you are really stuck for ideas either ask your friends and family or use a blog name generator.

2. Choose somewhere for your blog to live (host). I use Wix but there are lots to choose from, take a look and decide which platform is right for you.

3. Create a plan. I am trying something new every month, which is what I am blogging about, so I have a target to write one blog a month. I have created a 12-month plan around the things that I have chosen to try out.

4. Start writing. Think about telling a story: beginning, middle and end structure.

   Headline – this needs to tempt people to read your blog. I find this the hardest part and often tweak it once I have written my blog

   Introduction – the first paragraph of your blog needs to get to the point and give the reader a reason to want to read on

   Key messages – make a bullet point list of the points you want to get across, then expand upon these points

   Sub headers and bullets – use these help to break up the text and make it easy for the reader to scan your blog for the information that interests them

   CTA – the end of your blog should have a Call To Action. Think about what you want the reader to do next. Read another blog? Sign up to something? Follow you on social media?

5. Take a great image that grabs attention and enhances the messages in your blog. If you don’t have one of your own, use a royalty free image from sites like pixabay.

6. Review your blog and make sure that the content of your blog conveys what the headline promise

7. Use social channels to share your blogs with your audiences.

There are lots of online ‘how tos’ on creating your own personal blog, I like this Beginners Guide.

Get inventive and get blogging. Good luck!

If you are looking to try something new, but writing doesn’t come naturally to you, take a look at my other ‘try something new blogs’ to see if there is something you would like to attempt.