How To Start A Blog – A Beginner’s Guide

I first dreamt up and started PaleGirlRambling back in 2017, that’s over 4 full years this little space on on the internet has been mine and I’ve become pretty darn proud of my small piece of the internet.

When I first started blogging I don’t think I realised quite what a massive place the ‘blogosphere’ was, there’s a blog for pretty much everything you can think of. Influencer marketing has grown an insane amount even in the past 4 years that I’ve been here. I wanted to put this post together to help those who want to take the plunge to start blogging. While there’s millions of blogs out there, there’s still space for little old you. If you’ve got a passion for something and want to write about it then my number one tip is go for it. I’m so grateful everyday that I decided in my bedroom one night while sorting through my makeup collection to create PaleGirlRambling and honestly I pinch myself daily for the opportunities this little part of the internet, along with some hard work and passion, has given me.

The first things first though, why have a blog? There’s so many influencers these days who simply use social media like Instagram or Tiktok. While these platforms are a fab place to be and indeed I use Instagram for PaleGirlRambling every day, the risk is if Instagram shut down tomorrow you’d loose everything. Having a blog is your little piece of the internet and as long as you continue to pay your hosting fees it’ll remain yours and no one can take it away from you.

When I first started PaleGirlRambling I created a free blog on WordPress as quite honestly I knew nothing about having a website! Quickly though I started researching and learning the ropes and I realised that having a ‘.wordpress.com’ site while it was great for introducing me to having a blog, meant it wasn’t really mine. I went ‘self hosted’ in 2018 and haven’t looked back. Being self hosted comes with a number of perks. Mainly it allows you to work on your DA. In simple terms, the higher your DA the higher you’ll show up on the list when people search on google and obviously the higher up you show, the more people are likely to visit your blog. You know yourself you don’t go to page 24 on the google search results when you want to know the answer to something! Having a self hosted site is also a desirable for brands should you wish to start collaborating.

Simple Step By Step

• Pick a niche (eg beauty) & name for your blog (and check the domain is available!)

 

• Pick a website hosting service & sign up and purchase your domain name. Congratulations you officially have a little place on the internet that’s all yours!

 

• Choose a theme for your blog & customise it to your liking

 

• Finally get writing & start promoting your posts on social media

Once you’ve got your blog up and running the world is essentially your oyster (with some hard work!). Blogging takes a lot more work than I ever realised. You become a writer, editor, photographer, social media & marketing manger, personal assistant, accountant, honestly the list goes on and on! I think for a blog to really be ‘successful’ you have to be passionate, willing to put a lot of time in and not just using it as a source of income (although that obviously is a perk!). As I said earlier I created PaleGirlRambling sitting in my bedroom because I had a passion for make up and skin care and wanted to talk about it and still to this day that passion remains.

My inbox is always open if you’ve any questions about starting your own blog. As I said at the beginning of this post, if you’re on the fence about creating a blog then just go for it! You’ve nothing to loose and an awful lot to gain.