We’ve all seen the articles and advertisements telling us how easy it is to start a blog.  A few simple keystrokes and less than 10 minutes later: bada bing, bada boom – you have a website!

That’s cute.

The truth is, there are a lot of things to know before starting a blog that these articles fail to mention.  So to save you from making newbie pitfalls and costly mistakes, let me help.

Here are the essentials to ensure your success.

It’s Not Free

Sure there are free themes, free plugins, and free tools, but blogging will still cost you.  You need to purchase a URL, pay for hosting, and invest in education and resources that will make it easier.

My blog, for instance, costs me about $75/month to maintain (and that’s on top of the roughly $600/year in annual expenses).  Sure you can have a blog for cheaper, but you get what you pay for.

To give you an idea of what those costs are, here is a breakdown of my blogging expenses:

Monthly Charges:

Hosting – $8.95
Site Backup – $5.00
Google Drive – $9.99
Adobe Creative – $9.99
Canva Premium – $12.95
Milo Tree – $9.00
Editing – $20.00

Annual Charges:

Site Security – $299.99
PO Box – $100.00
Tailwind – $119.00
URL (every 2 years) – $200.00

One-Time Charges:

Blogging Courses – $800.00
Site Design – $575.00

Keep in mind, all these expenses are business-related so they become write-offs on your taxes.  Obviously you’ll want to consult your tax professional for details, but it can certainly help with the upfront cost.

You Need A Niche

Another one of the most important things to know before starting a blog is you need a central focus.  We’ve all heard the saying “the riches are in the niches.”  And when it comes to blogging, that’s especially true.

Long gone are the days when you could write about broad topics (like travel, parenting, budgeting, etc) and find success.  Instead, you need to be much more specific.  For instance, instead of writing about parenting, you could focus your attention on parenting as a single mother of a special needs child.  Or instead of a recipe blog, you could focus on vegan recipes that can be prepared in less than an hour.

With over 152 million blogs on the internet, and over 2 million blog posts published every day, you need to stand out.  So choose something unique (or even just a unique angle on a popular subject).

When choosing your topic, there are a few things to consider:

» Is this something you’re passionate about?  Because if not, you’ll burn out quickly.
» Does your topic have a wide range of things to write about?  As important as it is to find a smaller niche, you need to make sure it’s something that has a sufficient amount of subject matter.  Otherwise, you may run out of things to say.
» Who is your blog going to serve?  If you’re writing to everyone you’re writing to no one, so you need to think of your audience as one singular person.  Then, you need to know that one person inside and out.  What are their hobbies?  What keeps them up at night?  What excites them?  What is their background?  Etc.

Content Is King

When writing content, you need to make sure you’re being authentic and helpful.  Spoiler alert: no one really cares what you ate for lunch or where you went on vacation.  People care about themselves.

So when writing your blog posts, you need to focus on what’s in it for your reader.

They aren’t going to care that you had a great time on your tour of Neuschwanstein Castle.  But they will care about tips on how to skip the excessively long ticket line, rules to follow when you’re inside, and where to go for the well-known photo of the castle against the valley below.

And if content is king, then consistency is queen.

You need to be posting regularly for your blog to gain traction.  That’s especially important when it comes to search engine optimization (or SEO, for short).  Whether that’s twice a week or twice a month, you need to post consistently.

It Takes Time

Another one of the most important things to know before starting a blog – it’s going to be an uphill battle.  I hate to tell you, but chances are you aren’t going to be an overnight success.  Blogging isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme and there are countless hours of hard work behind any success.

You need to approach your blog like you would any other budding business.  Look at the tasks you need to accomplish (such as writing posts, creating graphics, editing photos, promoting content, social media engagement, etc.) and create a schedule.  Then time block each task within that schedule to ensure you accomplish them.

Slapping a few pretty pictures up on social media and writing whenever you feel like it is a sure way to become part of the 99% of blogs that fail within their first year.

There’s A Learning Curve

Realize you won’t know everything in the beginning.  There is a lot to learn when it comes to blogging – how to create graphics, how to write an effective post, how to read basic HTML coding, how to troubleshoot tech issues, etc.  And believe me when I say there will be times you want to throw your computer against a wall and give up.

Don’t.

Things that seem difficult in the beginning will become second nature in no time.

I remember when I first started building my site and it took me 6 hours to figure out how to create my menu bar.  6 hours!  I watched dozens of YouTube videos, read tons of articles, and muddled through trying to figure out the difference between a page, a post, and a custom link.  Now, if I want to revise my menu it takes me 5 minutes or less.  Easy peasy!

But when you’re first starting out every task takes exponentially longer to accomplish.  That’s why it’s important to invest in courses to help expedite the process.  And as an added bonus, most online courses include access to a Facebook group that helps support you through your journey.  So when you run into trouble, you have a community you can reach out to that will help you navigate the roadblocks.

There Are Legal Considerations

Then there’s the boring part of blogging that no one really wants to deal with, but everyone should – the legal considerations.  One of the least sexy things to know before starting a blog, it’s arguably the most important.  But, despite it being such an essential part of running a website (or any business), many bloggers skip this part.

I get it, it’s a snooze fest.

But if you want to avoid someone coming after you for a copyright infringement or improper disclosures, you need to make sure this is one of the first things you do when you start your site.

Disclosures

Every blog needs to have a privacy policy and disclosures page.  It’s the fine print no one reads but will safeguard you against potential litigation or issues later.

This page can look different depending on your brand’s needs, but at a bare minimum it should include the following:

» your terms of use
» information on cookies
» verbiage on affiliate and ad network relationships
» details on how user data is stored and used
» privacy tools allowing users to see what data is collected and erase theirs if they wish

It’s also important to have a cookie notification on the first page a visitor sees on your site.  You can do that by simply downloading a cookie consent plugin.

GDPR

Despite being a European law, all websites need to be GDPR compliant.  That’s because if someone visits your website while they’re in Europe (even if they’re just visiting), the GDPR privacy laws protect them.

In order to be compliant you need to do the following:

» disclose the use of cookies and how they’re used
» receive consent for collecting and storing reader data
» consent must be specific, freely given, and revocable
» tell users how long personal data will be stored
» readers must be able to withdraw consent and be forgotten
» have more robust consent for email marketing
» you need a Data Protection Officer (DPO)

To make it easy, download the GDPR Framework plugin, which walks you through all the necessary steps to become compliant.

Copyrights & Plagiarism

When developing your brand and creating content you need to make sure you aren’t copying someone else’s work.  This includes names, quotes, photos, graphics, etc.

Before choosing your brand’s name you should search to ensure the URL isn’t taken and all the social media handles are available.  Then, do a quick trademark search to see if someone has claimed the name already.

When it comes to photos and graphics, you should only use works you have a right to.  Simply copying something from Google can land you in big trouble.  Instead, you should use graphics on sites like Canva (as long as they aren’t used on a product you’re selling).  For products, use sites like Creative Market to purchase licensing.

Finally, when quoting someone make sure you attribute it to the author properly.  If it’s a large block of text, consider reaching out to the author for permission (or at the very least, link back to their original content).

While all this requires a little extra work, these things to know before starting a blog are important so you have the best chance for success.  Sure, it may be difficult and take a lot of hard work.  But anything worth doing is never easy, right?

So turn your passion into profit and take the necessary steps to create a thriving online business!

Awesome Blogging Resources

Hosting · Big Scoots or SiteGround
Site Security · Sucuri
Graphic Creation · Canva
Site Design · Pixel Me Designs
Pinterest & Instagram Scheduling · Tailwind

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